Best New-to-Me Music of 2008

Yesterday my friend Jeffrey blogged his favorite music of 2008. He inspired me to finally blog something. Here goes.

These are things I liked in 2008. I'm sure some of them will end up being from before 2008, since I'm about as far from hip as is possible. Also, some of this is probably supposed to be lame, or only appeal to one particular group to which I don't necessarily belong, or whatever. Again, I'm not hip; I just buy what I like. Feel free to let me know how much this bothers you in the comments.

I was going to make this a list of everything I bought in 2008, since certainly that wouldn't be much of a list... but it turns out Amazon's MP3 Download system was very effective on me. I bought quite a bit this year, probably coming pretty close to the most I've ever spent on music. Kudos, Amazon.

Anyhoo, without further ado:

10. The Reminder by Feist

As you might notice going through this list, if it's in a commercial, there's a good chance I like it. It isn't that I like it because it's in a commercial; I'm a DVR addict, and usually don't realize the stuff I buy is in commercials until after I've bought it. It's just that, apparently, the kind of music people think is good for selling stuff seems to be the music I like. I know that makes me lame, but I don't care.

Feist definitely falls into that category. Her video for "1234" was a piece of single-shot coolness that bought her a long-running iPod commercial. I think I managed to see that video before finally buying the album... on Amazon, so suck it Apple!

9. Oracular Spectacular by MGMT

Something about MGMT music just makes me happy. I think it's that it sounds like they're having fun playing their songs. Or maybe it's the association with the Rock-afire Explosion YouTube videos, like the one I linked above.

8. Carnavas by Silversun Pickups

I don't get the 10 seconds of interference at the end of "Well Thought Out Twinkles," but I love absolutely everything else about this album.

7. The It Girl by Sleeper

I think this is the oldest album on my list, but I had to include it. I don't remember how I randomly stumbled on Sleeper years ago, but I fell in love with them. Last week, I found out they had an album in-between the two I owned already. I don't know how I missed it, but I had to buy it.

6. Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend

They have a song about the Oxford comma (aka the serial comma), of which I am a huge advocate. Sure, they imply that I'm somehow strange for advocating Oxford commas, but their music is awesome enough that I got over their dismissiveness.

5. "Yes We Can" by will.i.am, etc

This one made the list even though, as far as I know, it isn't on any album (if you know of an album that has it, let me know; will.i.am deserves to get some cash from me for putting this together, since I've listened to it about a billion times). This video/song/speech explains in four and a half minutes why I was willing to devote so much time to getting that guy elected. The speech is beautiful, moving, and informative. Listen to it; he isn't just saying we want some glittering generality of "change" like his critics always claimed. He lays out, of course in broad brushstrokes in this few minutes, but still with a fair amount of specifics what it is we're working for. Together, we can continue to strive toward a more perfect union. Beautiful.

4. XO by Elliott Smith

I've listened to "Miss Misery" from the Good Will Hunting soundtrack many, many, many times while feeling down, and something about its sad beauty always cheered me back up. For some reason, I had never though to buy anything else buy Elliott Smith until this year. Sadly, I can't buy anything new; Elliott killed himself (probably; there's still some speculation that foul play was involved) in 2003.

3. Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow by Jonathan Coulton

The best thing about Rock Band is the new music it introduces me to. I really should have heard of Jonathan Coulton before "Still Alive" and "Skullcrusher Mountain" made it into Rock Band, but somehow I'd missed him. I've begun to rectify that with this album and the two versions of "Still Alive" from the Orange Box Soundtrack. He has a friggin' song about the Mandelbrot Set. How could I possibly not love that?

2. Costello Music by The Fratellis

Apparently the Fratellis had a song or three in commercials. Somehow I missed that until after a bartender friend played them at his bar. I went home that night and downloaded their album on iTunes; it wasn't on Amazon, so I installed iTunes and set up my iTunes Store account, because I had to own that album. Their music is just so fun.

1. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (Soundtrack) by Various Artists

If you have not yet watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, go do so right now. I love everything about this thing. I'd heard some buzz about it before it came out, but I never expected the music to be as complex and interesting as it turned out to be. And it stars Barney Stinson, Mal, and that Guild geek chick. Could it possibly be more awesome? I don't think so.

Honorable Mention 1: "MyHope" by sweetafton23

For some reason she doesn't have an mp3 of this available yet, so I can't listen to this easily enough on repeat to figure out if I'd still love it... but I really don't have enough ukelele in my playlist. Mostly I love that people can just do this now, putting out music without a studio, let alone a label. Good stuff. Now let me give you money for your mp3!

Honorable Mention 2: "Keeping the Dream Alive" by Münchener Freiheit

I still can't find an mp3 of this (in English, at least), but I actually bought two somewhat crappy covers of it earlier this year when somehow it randomly came to mind. God I love this song. I have listened to this one on repeat (back in the early 90s), but it's not at all new to me; it's just something I dug up when I realized YouTube would let me do so. Thank you, YouTube!

Why I'm Both Happy and Pissed about Warren

Background: Obama picked a homophobic prick named Rick Warren* to invoke the sky giant at his inauguration. Rick Warren is the stereotypical evangelical asswhipe, who, for example, thinks that, if we allow gay marriage, we have to also allow incestuous marriages and pedophiliac marriages. 'Cuz, you know, homosexuality is exactly the same as incest and pedophelia in his eyes.

People are very pissed that Obama has invited such a jackass to his inauguration. There are certainly reasons to be pissed, but there are also reasons not to be.

1. Obama is able to use this outrage as cover to say things like this:

It is no secret that I am an advocate for gay and lesbian Americans.

Without this controversy, there's little reason for Obama to make such a statement, which, btw, is something no president-elect has ever said before.

2. The coverage is all about what a jackass Warren is. Some Americans knew before all this that Warren was a dumbass. Now, a larger percentage have heard about the quote comparing gay marriage, incest, and pedophilia. The coverage is making sure he continues to appeal only to the intolerant jerks that he already appealed to.

3. This is going to work on some percentage of people. Idiots who agree with everything Obama says other than the "fact" that he's Muslim can say, "Oh, if an evangelical idiot like me invokes God for him, I guess he must not be Muslim." Maybe they can leave the idiotic side of their personality behind and vote for the stuff that matters, and maybe they can even listen to Obama and learn something.

4. It's the part of the inauguration where they ask the sky giant to pay attention, and Obama picked someone who he does not agree with. In other words, Obama doesn't give a shit what the sky giant thinks. He's doing this for politics, and the religious side of it doesn't factor into his decision. That's great.

All that said, Warren is a big pile of idiocy. He was a big supporter of Prop 8, which was already a kick in the teeth to LGBTs on election day (I mean, it was also a kick in the teeth to those of us who think that kind of thing is evil, but not as directly aimed as it was at the LGBT community). So I can see how this makes people continue to think they aren't wanted. 

But here's the other part of all of this: it is our job in this play to be pissed off. Numbers 1-3 rely on as much of the left being pissed off about this pick for a meaningless post as possible. So, fuck Warren. And dammit Obama, why did you pick someone so bad that I'm considering digging through the Urban Dictionary to find an insult scathing enough to fit him. You should have picked someone who didn't matter at all.

* People keep calling this fucktard "Reverend" Warren. Fuck that. Reverend means "worthy of reverence." Why do we still use that term for idiots who clearly aren't worthy of reverence? Tell ya what, if people will agree to refer to people who work in education as "The Brilliant Jon Harmon," for example, perhaps I'll start calling these jerks "Reverends."

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/15

I haven't done one of these recaps since Friday, but it doesn't look like I shared too much over the weekend, so this shouldn't be too huge.

Science and Medicine:

• I love this scale model of the solar system in Maine. I really want to get one of these together in the Austin area.
• Researchers in Australia have found that sarcasm is useful for detecting dementia. I dunno, I'm not sure I believe there are demented people in Australia.
• Researchers at the University of Toledo have reported the first case of sleep-emailing. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend turning on Mail Gogggles in Gmail Labs.
• Ferrofluid is awesome. Must... own... lots! I'm thinking some sort of system hooked to a speaker magnet would be very cool.

Software and the Internets:

• Apparently there's a Firefox-like open-source alternative to iTunes/Windows Media Player. The duplicate-finder add-on alone makes it enough for me to check out, at least for my home library.

Politics:

• It looks like I was also wrong about the pick for HUD. This guy sounds qualified, though, so I'm fine with being wrong again.
• The origin of the so-called War on Christmas, waged by the likes of Bill O'Reilly, has been traced to white supremacists. Not much of a surprise there, really.
• Obama's transparency has already infected the Congressional Oversight Panel, tasked with keeping track of where our $700 billion goes. Woot.
• Work on spreading this meme: Harry Reid is an ineffective Senate Majority Leader. Any failures aren't because we didn't get 60; they're because the modern filibuster is a joke. The filibuster is supposed to be there so you can block legislation you findunconscionable, not legislation that you want to vote no on.
• The first batch of answers from "Open for Questions" are up at Change.gov. Neat.
• The Illinois House has begun the impeachment process for Blago.

Christmas with Woodrow Wilson

I just learned something interesting from last night's Rachel Maddow Show. 

The election of 1916 was very close. It took several days to figure out whether Democratic incumbent Woodrow Wilson had won, or if he'd lost to Republican Charles Evan Hughes. During this period of doubt, Wilson sent a letter to his Secretary of State, informing him of the following:

• If Hughes won, Wilson would immediately name Hughes as his Secretary of State, and push through his confirmation.
• Wilson and his VP, Thomas R. Marshall, would immediately resign.
• Being third in line, Hughes would immediately become President, cutting out the lame duck phase.

Bush should really, really consider this. I want my bike.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - President Goofus and President Gallant

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/12

I skipped yesterday, so there will probably be quite a few shared items here. So, without further ado...

Hardware:

• Shut down your PC when you aren't using it. I still leave mine on, but this story might finally kick me into being better about power management.

Astronomy:

• A group of Dutch geophysicists have proposed that the Moon arose by a massive nuclear explosion 4.5 billion years ago. I don't think they'll supplant the impact theory (that the Moon formed when a very large object smacked into the early Earth, leaving its heavy bits behind and ejecting a bunch of the Earth's crust, which then coalesced into the Moon), but it's an interesting idea.

Politics:

• Obama is looking into changing the War Power Act, or, as I like to call it, the "Nanana I can't hear you the President can do what he wants nanana" Act. Er, well, one of such acts.
• Do not, as the New York Times did in their summary of this article, buy into the myth that the overpaid UAW is killing the auto industry bailout. UAW line workers, on average, make less than or equal to their equivalents at non-union, foreign plants in states like Kentucky or Alabama (according to Olbermann last night, at least). It just so happens that senators from those states are spreading this myth of the overpaid, obstructionist UAW worker. Funny how that works.
• Looks like I'm probably wrong about who Obama will choose for Secretary of Transportation. I haven't looked into it enough yet to know whether I'd prefer the Texas guy or the California guy.

Science:

• Japanese scientists have reconstructed images by scanning a human brain while it viewed those images. In other words, they, in part, read people's minds. That is fraking unbelievably awesome.

Zombies:

• Holy crap, it's Zombie Friday again already! The third one is hilarious. The first is pretty funny, but just wrong. The second is awesome but I didn't re-watch 'cuz I'd already seen, and the fourth is way too long.

Software and the Internets:

• Lifehacker had a feature on Open++, a program that lets you add anything to Windows right-click menus. I like.
• Lifehacker found an online Photoshop replacement that's even cooler than the Phoenix I linked to before.
• The Austin teacher who insisted there's no such thing as free software is calming down, as is the guy who started the story. It sounds like both sides were overreactive morons, but the teacher is the one who threatened legal action while being the opposite of right, so I still side with the Linux guy.
• NiceTranslator is badass. Set your target language, type a phrase, and it uses Google Translate to figure out what language you're typing in and give you a translation. Neat. Hey, wait. That's kinda sci-fi, even if it can only work with known languages. Neat.
• I recommend against the auction site called Swoopo, based on this write-up. Jeebus that can't be legal.

As always, comment on these or any other shared items (or items you'd like to share with the rest of us) below.

Interlude: Trivia at Pluckers

I've long been a trivia addict. In the last few months, some friends and I have started attended pub quiz trivia at Pluckers Wing Bar, a local Austin wing chain/bar. The trivia is normal pub quiz rules, in this case a $50 gift card for the first place team after 8 rounds of 10-12 questions each, each round with a theme (TV, TV theme songs, movies, sports, etc).

However, Pluckers has a special way to break a tie: the wing-off, with a member of each tied team racing to eat five of their "Fire in the Hole" wings. I tried a batch early in the night to see if I'd be up for it, but decided they were the kind of thing you want to take slow.

My teammate Phil was up for the challenge when we tied, though. Here he is gloving up to begin the wing-off, already looking forward to the beer he'll drink triumphantly when he wins.

Pluckers serves these extraordinarily hot wings drowned under the sauce. Clearly they didn't pay attention during Saturday morning cartoons when they were a kid. I believe this stuff qualifies as "goop."

Phil attacked the wings with style. He chose to go one-handed when one of his opponent's gloves ripped.

Unfortunately, his opponent used two hands, and kicked Phil's ass... winning the third-place $15 that we had tied for.

Phil finished the wings anyway, and came to regret it. He didn't even finish the beer.

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/10

I'm sleepy, but that doesn't mean I won't get today's shared Google Reader items out of the way before drifting off to early sleep.

Austin:

• Yesterday it hit 80 during the day in Austin, then snowed at night:
  
• In other Austin news, a teacher in Austin sent an angry letter to a charity that gives away Linux laptops, chiding the charity for fraudulently telling children the software was free, when "No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful." For those who aren't sure, yes, Linux and other free and open-source software really is free. The teacher is an idiot. Also, Ubuntu is awesome and way easier to use than Windows, and I really need to start using it on more than just my backup desktop.

Technology:

• Nintendo is bringing eBooks to the DS. I strongly approve.

The Internets:

• Google has published it's year-end zeitgeist round-up. My personal favorite is the large number of international top-tens which include "google" as a search term on google.
• This image "evolution" system is fairly cool, but, after running it for a bit, I found it did what the weak version I wrote several years ago in Javascript did: it bloats and bloats, and starts to take over your memory. I'm still hoping to borrow from their idea (which, in turn, borrows from someone else's idea) to get my version up soonish, but I still think Flash would be a much faster way to go.

Politics:

• 538.com had a good rundown of what happens next in Illinois, now that Blagojevich has been indicted but neither convicted nor impeached (yet). He followed it up with more details of whether the Senate can reject a Blago pick, and a run-down about what Obama didn't know.
• The Obama transition team added a badass question voting system to change.gov. When you have a few minutes, register and vote. It took me a few tries to get logged in (probably because the servers were getting hit heavily from the news spreading), but it was very cool once I got there. Bonus awesomeness: the check, x, and "skip" buttons show "yes," "no," and "meh...", respectively, when you mouse-over them.
• Obama has chosen his Energy Secretary, EPA head, energy "czar," and head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. I love the Energy pick: a Nobel Prize-winning physicist (and biochemist, 'cuz he's cool like that) and long-time alternative-energy advocate, Steven Chu.

That's it for today. As always, comment below!

Coming tomorrow: A blog about something else, with photos!

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/9

Holy crap, I haven't done this since last Thursday. These are my favorite Google Reader shared items in that timespan.

Zombies:

• My friend Jon found two cool zombie movies. And I created a "zombies" tag, because I realized it was missing from my blog.

Politics:

• The new New Deal is starting. Woot.
• I don't have anything against David Gregory for Meet the Press, per se, but I was pulling for Chuck Todd. Then again, I've never seen Chuck Todd interview anyone, and that's what's required. It's big shoes to fill in any case, and I'm not sure anyone can pull it off.
• The first challenge of Obama's citizenship has been rejected by the Supreme Court. There's another one coming, but it's a good start. He was born in Hawaii, you idiots. That's all it takes, as long as he hasn't rejected his citizenship... and if it's possible for a little kid to reject their US citizenship, the system is insane.
• Holy crap, the Governor of Illinois is super corrupt, and was trying to sell Obama's Senate seat. It may take a while now to get that seat filled. Chances are good the Senate will reject anyone Blagojevich picks, and it takes time to spin up an impeachment and/or special election.
• Bill O'Reilly, in describing how terrible Seattle is from a war-on-Christmas perspective, makes me want to move there.

Science:

• This article was entitled "Scientists Achive Mental Body-Swapping," but it's about getting people to essentially think as if they're in another body. It's not nearly as sci-fi cool as I thought it must not possibly be.

Technology:

• The summary of this article about Hawaii's plan for a state-wide electric car network on Slashdot annoyed me. An electric car grid encourages/allows more efficient power generation; it takes the power generation step out of the car, so you can do whatever it takes to make the power generation clean on a statewide basis. It doesn't rule out wind and solar, it just puts that step in a centralized place.
• I'm very annoyed that I didn't hear about/see the 3D NFL broadcast.

Biology:

• There's some evidence that the herpes simplex virus (the virus that causes cold sores, among other things) causes Alzheimer's. It would be awesome if this pans out and leads to treatment and/or a cure.

Atheism:

• Techskeptic (via Pharyngula) has a list of Atheist/secular charities. I've often wanted something like this myself, so it's nice that someone else compiled it for me.

The Internets and other Computeriness:

• A nearly full-featured, browser-based, image-editing program is available. It's very cool, and I love the pic they made in their demo video.

Programming (but the first one is awesome, Libby):

• This evolutionary algorithm to create the Mona Lisa is stunningly amazingly awesome. It dovetails with something I've wanted to do, and might inspire me to finally get that project moving.
• Google has announced Google native client, which promises to put code written for x86 processors onto the web. That's very, very cool, and opens up all kinds of possibilities.

Finally, uncategorized, I shared this old video of "Keeping the Dream Alive" by Munchener Freiheit (huh, I always thought the band was just "Freiheit"), because I missed it and randomly searched to see if it was on YouTube... and it was. Enjoy. Or, ya know, don't, if you don't like cheesy music. In any case, comment below.

Blogless

No blog today, probably no blog tomorrow. Too much to catch up on.

Instead... puppies!

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/4

It's time to play catch-up on my Google Reader Shared Items.

Technology:

• Cell phones and other portable electronics may not need batteries soonish. This is super, super cool.

Computers and the Internets:

• I think this "friend connect" thing is neat. I haven't decided for sure yet, though.
• A Windows download lets you search your photos by filters like "snow" or "yellow." I wish someone would make something like this for online books and such. It'd let you find a page of an electronic book the same way you remember/scan for a page in a print (text)book.

Politics:

• Prop 8: The Musical showed up in several blogs I read yesterday. It's good stuff.
• In 1975, Australia found out that giving a ceremonial appointee actual power and assuming he'll never use it is a really bad check-and-balance system. Since then, although they haven't yet succeeded in getting the Queen out of their constitution, they've been moving progressively toward doing so. Now Canada is learning the same lesson. I'm just excited because, as a Son of the American Revolution, there's a drive in the back of my mind that makes it exciting possibly finally drive the English monarchy completely out of North America. Come on, Canadians! You can do it!
• 538's still going strong. His analysis of the swing Senators is very interesting, at least to political wonks like me.
• Bill Richardson has officially been nominated as Secretary of Commerce. I thought that was already decided, but apparently it wasn't official yet.

Science:

• An alien comet may have entered the solar system. Neat.
• Physicists cannot be trusted.
• Holy crap, it might be possible to break up hurricanes using supersonic jets. This is just unbelievably awesome. I can't wait until they try it.\
  

As always, comment about these or anything else below.

12/3/2008ish

No blog today. Or is there??

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/2

Another day, another couple dozen shared Google Reader items. Here are my favorites.

The Internets:

• Microsoft's Live image search now lets you find images similar to other images. That's potentially quite useful.
• A new browser-based OS is on the way. I like. I think we're at the point that computers could be ubiquitous; you should have a computer or three in your kitchen for checking recipes, for example, and one by your window for things like identifying birds in your feeder. Super-light-weight OSes (geared toward super-low-power computers) are a big step in that direction.
  
• Apple now recommends that Mac users install antivirus software. I have to congratulate Apple. That means they're finally getting popular enough that people bother writing viruses for them. It's sad that they can't claim that they're more secure anymore just because nobody bothered to write viruses before, but that's the price of popularity.

Education?:

• A calculus teacher in San Diego is selling ads on quizzes and tests. I applaud his effort in busting a door open that could lead to more money for me.

Politics:

• Unless otherwise noted, everything on Change.gov is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Ie, you can repost or otherwise use anything from there as long as you say that you got it from Change.gov. Even commercially, if you want. That is cool.
• Fox News's website warned today that Hillary supporters might not go for Obama in last month's election. I love the poll.

Those are the highlights from today. As always, comment below.

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/1

I'm going to try to get back up to daily (or more) posts, at least 'til Newtonmas or so. So, without further ado, here are today's shared Google Reader items.

Life:

• Lifehacker has a guide to pronouncing names correctly. If you're bad at this, read it now. I'll personally be using the other links in that article, about how to find out a name you've forgotten and how to remember names in the first place.

The Internets:

• In case you didn't see it, Cartoon Network Rick Roll'd the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Good stuff. In case you haven't been exposed to it, "Rick Rolling" is the internet meme of sending a link to the Rick Astley video "Never Gonna Give You Up" and telling the recipient it's something else, like a movie trailer.
• The FCC is considering a plan to provide free wireless internet for the US. I hope this works out.
• Woot, Chrome's about to get extensions. I love its stability and javascript speed. Making it extensible would keep me permanently off Firefox (except for work, where I need Firefox for some things, and even IE for a few things. Grrrr).

Biology:

• A diet of fat, sugar, and cholesterol may increase the risk of ALzheimer's. I had something witty to say about this, but I can't remember what it was.
• This quote from Creationist Ray Comfort is dumbfoundingly idiotic. It's even more moronic than his banana argument, in which he merely didn't understand that bananas had been selected by humans. This new one is just... wow.
  
• Geologists are finding evidence that the early Earth cooled long before we used to think it did. That makes some things make more sense; chemical evolution would have more time to ramp up from simple chemistry to life. But, darnit, it means we can't say "Life showed up on Earth just about at the moment that it was possible for it to do so" as an argument for why finding water on another planet would be super, super awesome.

Shared Items through morning of 11/29

I haven't had much to share lately. Here are a few:

• A Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in New York. I've never understood why people would want to go out shopping on a day that's so crazy that it's generally known as Black Friday, just to save a few bucks. It just isn't worth it. This has me even more dumbfounded than usual.
• Scientists have found the mechanism for how resveratrol slows aging, and have demonstrated that it also works in mice. This could be huge. In the meantime, drink some wine and/or grape juice. Wow, we really loved run-on sentences when we wrote that thing (I can't remember whether I wrote it or edited it, but it was one of the first things I worked on at my current job).
• Foundation movies are coming! It'll be interesting to see if they pull them off. If I'm remembering the right book in the series, Foundation spans hundreds of years (the series certainly does). That's a tricky series to make.

Hopefully that's enough to let everyone know that I'm still alive.

Barack Obama is Center-Right... nudge nudge, wink wink

There's a meme going around that Obama's policies are surprisingly center-right, supposedly to the consternation of those of us who supported him. At first my reaction was to resist that, since, ya know, it's BS. But I realized I'd rather embrace it. Here's why.

As far as I've ever been able to tell (and I have no good data to back this up, mostly because I don't feel like spending a lot of time researching this post), Americans tend to gravitate to the center without necessarily knowing what that means. That might be just as unfair as the Obama=center-right meme, but it feels true. I even thought I was moderate until I started to really learn what words like "liberal," "conservative," (politically) "left," and (politically) "right" meant.

So, what the heck, let's call Obama center-right. Closing Gitmo? Fine, let's call that a center-right position, and pretend that the real centrist position is fixing the FISA courts (nudge nudge, wink wink). Putting people to work through a public works program that simultaneously repairs our infrastruture? Sure, what the heck, that's a center-right position. Raising the minimum wage and extending unemployment, that's the real centrist position.

What do you think, would that work?

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 11/26

I skipped yesterday, so here are some shared items from the last couple days. I'm going to try to limit the ones I post to my very favorites, so check my shared items for the rest if you're interested.

Technology:

• Researchers at Georgia Tech are developing emotionless killing machines to better apply ethics rules, such as the Geneva Conventions, on the field of battle. I'm mostly blogging this so the resistance in the future will have another spot in the archive that they can recover to figure out where in time to send their soldiers to try to save us all.
• The San Francisco Bay Area is planning to install an electric vehicle grid (charging stations and such) to make electric vehicles more viable. I like this idea a lot, although it annoys me that people think of electric vehicles as if they get infinite miles to the gallon. The energy still has to come from somewhere.

Atheism:

• I love PZ Myers' blog about atheists and thankfulness. Thank you, PZ Myers (a real human being) for expressing this so well.

Politics:

• The economic bailout is costing a really, really insane amount of money, currently roughly $4.6165 trillion. To put that number in perspective, it's a good chunk of everything we've ever spent on just about everything in your American History book.

The Internets:

• I love this song about the future of things like MySpace. Her other videos are also awesome.
  

That'll do it for today. Comment on these or any other shared items (or, really, whatever) below.

No Blog

I'm dog-proofing. I'll cover shared items tomorrow night. Feel free to comment here if you're itching.

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 11/24

Oops, I almost forgot to post today. Here are today's shared Google Reader items.

Miscellaneous:

• I don't often share the "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks, but I read everything they post, because grammar mistakes make me point and laugh. When said mistakes occur on the sign for an elementary school (not even, semi-excusably, on the part that changes; no, this is on the permanent part), I have to share it.
• This isn't a shared item, but I'm watching Rachel Maddow without a DVR buffer since the Daily Show and Colbert were repeats, and I just saw a commercial for some hair-removal device. If you act now, you get a smaller one for "lips, chin, and sensitive areas." Do you really want to use the same hair-removal device on your lips, chin, and "sensitive areas?"

Atheism:

• Could it be? Is Obama as non-religious as I hoped he might be?? Didn't the right-wing nutjobs realize calling him an atheist would make him even more hated in America than calling him a Muslim??? Woot to Scientologists moving below us, at least.

Politics:

• Palin 2012! No, seriously, there are still people who want to get Palin on the ticket in 2012. I may have to give them money.
• Somehow it surprised me that Biden was replaced in the Senate by his former chief-of-staff, rather than by his son, Beau. Apparently everyone knew this was going to happen; that the chief-of-staff is holding the seat for 2 years presumably to allow Beau to run for it when he gets back from Iraq/finishes his term as Delaware Attorney General. How did I miss that?
• Bush has begun his end-of-term pardons. I shared this mostly for this sentence (emphasis mine): "Those issued reprieves had been found guilty of mostly garden-variety offenses, like Leslie O. Collier, who was issued a pardon for a 1996 conviction for the unauthorized use of a pesticide in killing bald eagles.

Science:

• A study has shown that napping boosts "sophisticated memory." I don't really have anything to add to that, except that it's awesome news; I'm not being lazy, I'm just pumping up my memory. Oh, and in the other story linked from that page, it says not to watch TV and/or read stuff off of a monitor just before going to bed. So, of course, I'm blogging and watching MSNBC before heading to bed. Oops.
• We're going to Jupiter in 2011, but not Europa. Why not Europa?? We know Europa is probably the best bet for finding life in the solar system. I can't imagine a bigger scientific find than extraterrestrial life. Why aren't we checking the place that we think offers the best chance of finding life??? To answer my own question, I know they're terrified that they won't properly sterilize the mission, and we'll find life only to have it killed off by bacteria on the probe. Well, that and we need to send some sort of drilling machine if we do it, because it'd have to go through tons of ice to get to the possible ocean. But we should at least plan to spin any probe that goes to Jupiter over to Europa to help us map that moon out for a future mission.

Technology?

• [most recent] McDonalad has applied for a patent for a "method and apparatus for making a sandwich." If it's as ridiculous as it seems to be, just... wow.

That's it today. Comment below.

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 11/22

I have people coming over at 7 for Rock Band and football (go OU!), but right now it's the calm before the storm. So, without further ado, here are today's shared Google Reader items.

Politics:

• I choose to read this url as "22 asses s." David E. Sanger of the NY Times editorial page took a break from trying to stir up a war with Iran to point out that picking competent people like Hillary (State) and Geithner (Treasury) means Obama plans to govern from the center-right. While ready the rightwing nuts trying to claim (now) that Obama is center-right, after claiming throughout the campaign that he was dangerously liberal (or even Marxist), is annoying, it's also hilarious.
• 538 has an argument for why Obama should strike down "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" right away (replacing it with "Don't give a shit, you morons"). I agree. The part he leaves out, though, is that Obama should do things like this because it's the right thing to do.

Science:

• Researchers at Caltech have come up with a technique to create movies at an atomic level. This research is amazingly awesome. Seeing atoms move will, surely, open up some new arenas.

Food:

• [Most recent; this tag is just so I can figure out where I left off, now that I'm breaking things up into categories] Lifehacker links to a story about how to make hot sauce (Tabasco-ish stuff, not salsa). The article itself is nice, but the early comments have some great tips, as well.

That's it today. Comment below!

My Cabinet Picks

Since Obama picked the two people I endorsed yesterday, I guess I should go ahead and finish picking. Let's see how I do! Let me know in the comments if I've missed any confirmations/strong rumors of positions being filled already, or, really, even weak rumors.

Already filled, or strongly rumored:

• Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton. I approve.
  
• Secretary of the Treasury: Timothy F. Geithner. I approve.
  
• Attorney General: Eric Holder, Jr. I strongly approve. He has lots of background in anti-corruption trials. This is a very, very interesting pick, and likely made Bush's pardon list longer.
• Secretary of Commerce: Bill Richardson. I approve, although I wouldn't have picked him specifically for this spot.
• Secretary of Health and Human Services: Tom Daschle. I approve.
• Secretary of Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano. I don't know enough about her, but it sounds like she's a good fit.

"Cabinet-level" positions (attend Cabinet meetings, but not Secretaries):

• Vice President of the United States: Joe Biden. I called it in August 2007 when Biden defended Obama at a debate, but somehow people thought Biden had been harsh on Obama in debates. I don't get it. Anyhoo, I approve.
  
• White House Chief of Staff: Rham Emmanuel. I strongly approve; it shows Obama plans to get things done through Congress, not through signing statements.
• Director of the Office of Management and Budget: Peter Orszag. Krugman likes the pick, that's good enough for me.
  
  

Predictions/Preferences:

• Secretary of Defense: Probably will remain Gates until we get out of Iraq, or move strongly in that direction. I wouldn't be surprised if he's replaced with Chuck Hagel eventually, though, if Hagel doesn't fill any other roles.
  
• Secretary of the Interior: Raul Grijalva would be an interesting choice, mostly because either Napolitano or her replacement would get to name his replacement in the house.
  
• Secretary of Agriculture: HuffPo says Vilsack. No thanks. Let's get a SecAg who won't be all about corn ethanol. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin intrigues me, but I'm not sure why I'm hearing Ag for her; it sounds like she needs a position that lets her be heard by the public. If this position is what it takes to get her going, though, it sounds to me like she's good at just about everything she tries to do, so sure.
  
• Secretary of Labor: The only name I've seen other than Granholm (see Energy, below) is Dennis Archer. I don't really know much about him, but in general a Labor Secretary from Michigan just makes sense to me. Growing up the son of an autoworker can do that to you.
  
• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: The only name I've seen is Valerie Jarrett. She seems like a long-shot to me, but I can't find or think of anyone else. What, exactly, does HUD do?
  
• Secretary of Transportation: I expect this to be someone who has been vocal, preferably before the Minnesota bridge collapse but definitely since, about infrastructure development. I don't have a name yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was someone higher up than you'd normally see taking this appointment, a governor or a powerful member of Congress. Edited to add: Oh, I like Earl Blumenauer as a pick. Apparently he's big on public transportation and biking. 'Twould be interesting in SecTrans.
  
• Secretary of Energy: Jennifer Granholm (current Governor of Michigan). I had her picked for Labor, but my sister pointed out that she'd been talked about for Energy, and I definitely prefer that. Bringing her in basically makes this the Secretary of Making Detroit Work on Fuel Efficiency. Plus it gets a guy from (but not born in) my hometown into the Governor's seat in Michigan.
  
• Secretary of Education: Colin Powell. I've heard rumors of this, or I never would have thought of it, but from what I can tell he'd be a great fit. And I don't only think that because he advocates student use of new technologies. Only mostly because of that.
  
• Secretary of Veterans Affairs: This could be what Hagel is given, at least for a year or two before moving to Defense. I'm not sure Kerry would accept it, or I'd think he'd be likely.

"Cabinet-level" positions:

• Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency: Please, please, please don't pick Bobby Kennedy, Jr. He's an anti-science buffoon. I wish Gore would accept this one. Since he says he won't, I'm afraid Kennedy will probably get the job. Edited to add: I just read Lincoln Chafee as a maybe. I like.
  
• Director of the National Drug Control Policy: No idea. This is cabinet-level? Really? I expect this one to be someone with treatment cred, other than that who knows.
  
• United States Trade Representative: Again, this is cabinet-level? Isn't this kinda Commerce? Again, no clue.
  

I'll try to solidify my picks as I hear more rumblings and can get a bit better informed. But something struck me working on this: there are multiple articles about virtually every position, and I've heard about quite a few of them. Other than talk of Powell as SecState for Bush, I don't remember hearing anything. It's exciting that we're paying so much attention this time; it'll be hard for a craptastic pick to sneak through (except Kennedy, because people don't realize/accept that he's a dolt).

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 11/21

I liked yesterday's experiment with tagging the blocks, so here are my nicely categorized shared Google Reader items:

Entertainment:

• Being down-in-the-dumps in the demo, the demise of Daisies was destined. Dammit, dimwits! Don't Dr. Seussian stories scripted semi-seriously stand-up to your "standards?"

Politics:

• One of Obama's FCC transition team co-chairs is an avid World of Warcraft player. I just love that. Obama's FCC will be firmly in the 21st century, it seems.
• Presumably reassured by my endorsement last night, Hillary has reportedly decided to accept Secretary of State.
• Speaking of awaiting my endorsement, Geithner is going to be Secretary of the Treasury. Good move, Obama.
• I hadn't endorsed Richardson for Commerce, per se, but it works for me. I mostly like it because Richardson seems to be a smart guy, but he always sounds like a boob whenever I hear him speak. When's the last time you heard a Secretary of Commerce speak? On a more serious note, Richardson has always been a foreign policy wonk (from studying it in college through serving (briefly) as US Ambassador to the UN, plus bits beyond), and I think focusing on the foreign part of commerce is smart. It's a global world, we need to be focused on how we can make that work, rather than resisting it.

Technology:

• It's the future. We are now using frikkin' laser beams in Iraq.
• Speaking of technology, I found myself thinking, "Man, this is so amazingly awesome that we can do this" every time one of my planes took off on my recent trip to/from New York for a wedding, so this bit from Louis CK really cracked me up.
• DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, aka the Department of Figuring Out Cool Things) is sponsoring an initiative to build a brain-based, brain-like computer. This could lead to really, really cool things. Or, you know, not so much.

Atheism:

• Apparently the decline of the American economy is due to atheism. Or at least an idiot thinks so. PZ says it all better than I can, with a great icon for the quote.

Science:

• Energy-matter equivalence has been verified (computationally) at the quantum level. This is very cool; Einstein and quantum have had trouble getting along in the past.

Internet:

• Google is now allowing users to customize searches. It doesn't work with "I'm Feeling Lucky" yet, which is annoying, but it's still potentially very cool.

That's it today. Chances are good I'll miss tomorrow, and possibly Sunday as well, but the feeds are slow on weekends anyway so hopefully there won't be too much to catch up on Monday. Comment away to convince me to finish making my layout awesome.

In Which I Endorse Hillary for Secretary of State

Many of you probably know that I was not only pro-Obama during the primary and election, but I was anti-Hillary. Mainly this was because Hillary had showed in the past that she was a big supporter of the imperial presidency, from asserting executive privilege as First Lady to, darnit I can't find the quote right now, but mixed up in the whole "vast right-wing conspiracy" thing was an assertion that she didn't think they should be able to prosecute a sitting President. With the raping that Bush has given the Constitutional separation of powers, I didn't think Hillary was a good choice for our next President. It seemed very likely to me that she would not only keep the extra power that Bush had claimed for himself, but expand it. Obama, on the other hand, seemed like he might actually restore the Presidency to its Constitutional bounds, and still seems to be on that path.

But today I realized something important. If Hillary runs in 2016 (assuming both that Obama is a good President and that he is re-elected in 2012), she'll be coming into a White House that just went through restoring those bounds. She would be significantly restrained in her ability to re-assert the imperial Presidency; she'd have to undo what her Democratic predecessor had just worked so hard to do.

Since that was the only thing I didn't like about Hillary, even if it was a huge thing in my mind, eliminating that option would make her a great potential President. Which leads me to my endorsement of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State.

The one and only thing Republicans ever gain any traction on in Presidential campaigns is foreign policy. The Republicans know what they're talking about for foreign policy, people seem to think, and the Democrats do not. If she stays in as Secretary of State for somewhere close to 8 years (a surprisingly rare feat; the average shelf-life of a Secretary of State is just over 3 years, and only 14 of 66 have served more than 4 years, one of those being Powell by 6 days), she'll have more foreign policy experience than any conceivable opponent. Of course, I think there is a distinct possibility that she'll be Obama's running mate in 2012, but that would just shore up her experience even more.

In case you're wondering, the last time we had two consecutive, full-term, Democratic Presidents was, well, technically 1809-1825 (Madison and Monroe, Democratic-Republicans), although you could probably count 1933-1953 as close enough. Something similar to either of those spans would be just fine with me, minus, ya know, the near-nation-ending wars.

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 11/20

I'm going to try something new in my shared items today, mostly to allow my sister to skip the "Programming" block. Let me know what you think.

Programming:

• Adobe released a C/C++ to Flash compiler. This is potentially very awesome, depending how well it does. It could result in a ton of programs migrating to the web, for one. But not to the iPhone, of course.

Politics:

• The Texas State Board of Education has voted to allow students to receive four years of credit for high school organized sports, rather than two. At first I thought this was a silly idea, but I got four years of credit for playing drums, and I can't really argue that playing drums is somehow more worthy of credit than is playing a sport.
• Jimmy Carter and others are going to visit Zimbabwe, despite warnings from Mugabe. Mugabe would be crazy to do anything bad, but, well, Mugabe is crazy. Kudos to Carter for (not all that surprisingly surprisingly) risking his life to do what he thinks is right, but eek!
• Somehow the first place I saw that Obama is likely to name Governor Janet Napolitano (D-AZ) as Secretary of Homeland Security was Indecision 2008. I know she's a very popular governor, but, well, that doesn't necessarily mean much. I really don't know anything else about her, so I have no opinion on this (possible) appointment just yet.
• I do know things I don't like about Larry Summers, but I didn't know he assured Gray Davis in CA that market manipulation wasn't an important factor in the CA energy crisis. Oops. Please, Obama. You can do better for the Secretary of the Treasury, and that position is even more important right now than it usually is.

Science:

• A spider has gone missing on the International Space Station. There are so many possibilities here, but one way or the other I'm pretty sure this is happening within the first 15 minutes of some sort of movie.
• A study recommends online gaming and social networking for kids. Geek kids do better. I just love that thought.
• Scientists have found the tomb of Copernicus. Mostly this doesn't seem like that important of a thing to do, since it's not like we're going to go worship at it or anything, but I like the idea of facial reconstruction to verify what he looked like. Cool stuff.

As always, comment on these or other shared items (or, really, anything you want) below.

Blog Edit in Progress

I have to run off for trivia, but I'm starting to update the look. Thoughts? I'll probably change things far more drastically, but at least I have a 0.1beta version of the header done...

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 11/19

Hey, it's tomorrow already! That means it's time for more of my shared Google Reader items:

• Us hardcore Obama supporters are feeling kinda lost. As we vamp waiting for Bush to get the heck out of Obama's chair, we don't have much to do. But someone came up with something for us to do while we wait: the Yes We Cans! food drive. It's a cheesy pun and Obama-related, and it's for charity! Perfection!
• A European group used stem cells to reline a transplanted trachea, so the recipient's body would see it as self and not reject it. That's awesome. Of course it happened in Paris, though; US stem cell research took a hit in 2001. To be fair, these weren't embryonic stem cells, but the research as a whole is hampered here.
• Monty Python has an official channel on YouTube. Whoot.
• Tom Daschle will be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. Somehow I missed it back in June when he basically said he was aiming for HHS, so I wasn't expecting this announcement. There's certainly nothing wrong with it, I just didn't know it was pretty much sewn up already.
• A US-Russian team has pieced together most of the genome of a woolly mammoth! Mammoths very likely went extinct at least in part due to the actions of humans. It'd be so awesomely awesome if we could bring them back.
• There's now a service to passive-aggressively teach your friends to answer their own damn questions. If it worked on cell phones, I imagine I'd be texting the results around quite a bit.

That's it for now. As always, comment on these or any other shared items below. Or, ya know, really anything. I'm not picky.

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 11/18, part II

Holy crap, I cleared my Google Reader list! I shared another half dozen or so stories in doing so, though, so let's go ahead and get those ones posted, too:

• Wired has a piece on why Apple won't ever allow Flash on the iPhone, and their reasoning is sound. In short: allowing Flash would remove Apple's control of apps, since there are already a bazillion apps in Flash and more could easily follow, posted out there on the "real internet" for iPhone users to access without downloading them from the store.
• I've wanted a Roomba for a while, mostly because I want to own a robot, and it couldn't hurt. But now, apparently, I also need a cat:
• Burnt Orange Report dug up Obama's announcement from 1/16/2007 that he was going to form an exploratory committee and think about maybe running for President. That got me wondering, so I dug up the text of Bush's announcement on 3/7/1999. It's interesting to compare what Bush said back then to how things turned out. I'll have to remember to virtuablog or whatever we're calling it in 8 years, comparing Obama's speech to how things turned out. He's done a good job so far of sticking with the same message, but who knows what might happen over the next 8 years. I mean, who other than James Dobson.
• Indecision 2008 over at Comedy Central has discovered Time magazine's pressing question for this year: Who will be Time Magazine's Barack Obama of the Year?
• Finally, this photo that PZ Myers found at Scientific American is simply stunning. Number 15 is also pretty cool, but I share PZ's enthusiasm for #4.

Comment here or back at the first part of tonight's shared items.

Edited to add: This was my 42nd post this year. Arrrrrr!

Biggest Month Yet!

I hadn't noticed that I passed my one-month record (set last month, with 15 posts) on Friday. Woot! Thanks for the inspiration to post my shared stuff for comments, Jon and Jeff! Suck it, October me!

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 11/18

I'm back in Austin. Well, I technically have been for over 24 hours now, but now I'm back and nearly settled back in. I still have 103 105 107 unread items in my Google Reader (which gives me an idea what those of you who are on my shared list go through), but I'm catching up. I think. Anyhoo, here are the shared items from the last few days:

• I haven't had a chance to use Lifehacker's Complete Guide to Speeding Up Your PC's Startup yet, but I'm looking forward to doing so. Mmmm, fast boots.
• Barack released his first YouTube weekly address. Just about everything about that sentence makes me smile.
• According to a study linked on Slashdot, unhappy people watch more TV. I've been happier overlapping with the time that I've watched less TV, but I can't figure out which came first.
• I can't wait to try my hand at making gummy candies. If that turns out well, I might cut out TV entirely.
• I grabbed this guide to liberating yourself from old email addresses mostly for McCarron (Yahoo mail as a primary? Seriously?? Do you like spam??), but I think I'll also use it to get rid of my own extras.
• This story about antimatter creation made me smile a lot. In a science fiction novel I just finished, a major plot point involved production of anti-matter. I'm pretty sure this discovery puts us ahead of where the author saw us in 2020.
• This video of the development of sand dollars linked at Pharyngula is amazing.
• Lieberman is still a "Democrat." Dammit. I almost would have prefered us having no chance at a filibuster-proof Senate. Now Lieberman gets to continue being more important than he should be.
• Speaking of filibuster-proof Senate chances, Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens has lost. Alaska didn't quite elect a convicted felon to the Senate. They just came very close. Of course, some of the outrage of that is silly. John Ashcroft lost a Senate race to a dead man, which I'm pretty sure makes you even more clearly inelligible for the Senate than being a convicted felon. I'm hoping at least some of the people voting for Stevens in Alaska were really voting for "whoever Caribou Barbie appoints to replace Stevens." Hmm, wait. I guess voting for the felon on purpose might be better.
• Microsoft is going to offer free anti-virus software starting late next year. This should be interesting. I agree with the idea in principle; having antivirus software on all PCs would cut down drastically on the spread of viruses. On the other hand, this pretty much spells the end of other antivirus program makers, and I can't imagine MS's free system will be very good without competition. My solution: people should start programming more viruses for Mac, to keep those other companies active.
• Firefox 3.1 is going to have tab tearing, a feature that I love on Google Chrome. I never noticed that it was missing in Firefox until I got in the habit of tearing off tabs in Chrome whenever I need to see things side-by-side, such as when I'm copying links from my shared items to my blog. If they can make 3.1 run for a whole afternoon without crashing, I might finally switch back.

That'll do it for today. Now off to work on some more of those unread items. As always, comment below so I know you're there!