Rubénerd!

Thanks to Sparx for sharing this story from Dispatches from the Culture Wars in Google Reader. It seems many of our suspicions over Palin's effectiveness as a running mate were true:

A new study of polling data from last year's election shows that it was not the financial crisis last fall that boosted Obama over McCain, it was the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate that destroyed any chance the GOP had of winning the election. The data reveals that the financial crisis that famously prompted McCain to "suspend" his campaign did very little to change voters' minds, but once he named Palin and she began to be known to the voting public, it was all downhill from there.

I find this oddly comforting. As I said back during the American presidential campaign last year, while I would have been pleased if Barack Obama beat John McCain, I was far more afraid of Sarah Palin being in a position of power. To put it as mildly as an American mustard, her proud anti-intellectual stance creeped me out no end, and the fact some people took her seriously scared the living daylights out of me.

I blogged about how picking Sarah Palin had backfired amongst voters of my age in the United States back in October 2008, it's heartening to see this turned out to be broadly true.

If you're really interested, all my ramblings about the 2008 US elections were tagged as such.

Brilliant analogy but I don't entirely agree: William Hung was fun and entertaining!

As I said on Google Reader, I reckon apathy is one of the most destructive forces out there. I don't know much about ol' Joe (only from watching The Late Show with David Letterman here and from what people have shared on Google Reader) but I know enough to reckon as long as some people still take him seriously, he's a scary guy

clipped from scienceblogs.com

Joe the Plumber Admits His Ignorance
Posted on: April 5, 2009 9:23 AM, by Ed Brayton

He was invited to speak at a rally against the Employee Free Choice Act in Harrisburg, PA, but it turns out he knows almost nothing about the act. So he just sputters some platitudes about politics when asked about the issues.

He keeps trying to say what he's really there for is to stand up for the American people, but here's the unspoken truth: he was there because someone was paying him to be there. What else can he do? He's turned into the William Hung of politics, just desperate to appear in any mall food court they'll book him at.

The Barack Obama and Nikon D60 Part One episode!

Terribly good jokes told by people who can't tell jokes; Barack Obama's inauguration on TV; relieved farewell to Dubbya; more relieved Sarah Palin didn't win than Barack did; silly thing John McCain said; the American founding fathers; Thomas Jefferson on church and state; getting a Nikon D60 for Christmas; pixel density is more important then megapixels; my old FinePix S9600; how bridge cameras compare to real single lens reflex (SLR) cameras; realising shows shouldn't be recorded at 2am; an exciting new hobby and discovering green tea is... green tea!

Download MP3 to listen ↓ 20:45 9.7MiB

You can also stream this episode and view its Internet Archive page.

I generally don't like to get too political on my blog or on Twitter, but given the once in a lifetime circumstances we see ourselves in with the election of President Barack Obama in the United States, I figure I can post a miniaturised epic series of posts here and get away with it. Politics and computer science have more in common than I thought; though that's for another post!

Yesterday evening after I had started penning my previous post about how relieved I am (and I could tell many Singaporeans were too) that Obama is now president, I was surprised to read this tweet by Corrie Bergeron on Twitter:

Reading comments on some blogs today, I wonder where the Bush-haters will turn their vile invective. Must be horrible to have that much hate
(tweet link)

I couldn't resist, I just had to reply to it.

@skydaddy Very few people are worthy of such contempt, but I'm confident that Bush Jr qualifies!
(tweet link)

I can honestly say I was not prepared for the reply.

@Rubenerd I'm sure it tears the haters up that Bush doesn't care about the hate. He's a bigger man than that. History will judge him well
(tweet link)

At that point I wasn't sure whether this was denial playing out, or whether it was a carefully and brilliantly worded work of satire. Given history I suspected the former, though I did give a little and admit that not everyone literally hated Bush... I'm positive at least 1% of people around the world will remember him in a positive light!

@skydaddy "History will judge him well."... oh man my dad, sister and I are roaring with laugher! But I guess some will judge him better
(tweet link)

He replied with some American history which alas I haven't been versed well enough in at this stage.

@Rubenerd Truman was despised, Nixon even more. Time has a way of telling. Nixon was a bad man, but a pretty good President looking back.
(tweet link)

To my American readers, is this statement true? I've heard the names Nixon and Truman thrown around, but know little about their past or their tenures as President. Ask me about former Aussie Prime Minister Paul Keating or former Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and I'm somewhat more informed!

I guess Bush can take some comfort in knowing that 18% approval ratings mean that at least some people liked him. Just not the vast majority of the world! Did I mention I was relieved Obama is president now?

Now that the United States is finally no longer in control of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and we've all heaved a collective -- and much anticipated -- sigh of relief, the work begins cleaning up the royal mess this incompetent pair made domestically and internationally. It's not all their fault of course, but even if you thought none of it was (and believe it or not there are people on Twitter telling me this) you can at least admit they did nothing to improve the world during their tenure. Yuck.

Barack Obama, Joe Biden and their team have their work cut out for them, if by "work cut out for them" I mean "they have Mount Everest to climb to even reach the base camp at foot of the summit".

ASIDE: I think I can be confident in saying thought that Obama and Biden would have to royally screw up on a scale unseen in history to beat the Bush/Cheney record. Would it be safe to say George W. Bush was the worst American president of all time?

All around Singapore today as I walked around you could see the change.

As you could see from the photo above, the front page of the local Straits Times broadsheet were all about Obama. Given the media control in Singapore (the only negative things about living here in my opinion) I generally don't read the papers, but let's just say yesterday and today were special occasions.

I walked past the Starbucks in Shaw House and noticed an American couple roaring with laugher with a barista as they talked about Bushisms and the relief they felt. In the underpass between Shaw House and Wheelock Place the buskers were singing about Obama. The radio waves were saturated. Plasma TVs in shopping centres, restaurants and bars were playing the swearing in on what seemed like an infinite loop. Mmm... infinite loop.

Less tangible was the overall jubilation but at the same time a sense of restraint and calm. You could tell some people were pleased and relieved at the same time. When I strolled into the Coffee Bean at Wheelock Place the women serving me asked if I was an American before I opened my mouth. My accident quickly showed for her that I wasn't, but she commented that it was such a relief to get that "bleeping moron out of ruling the world!". She was cute :).

This may be a honeymoon period, but boy does it feel good! I remember when our Aussie Prime Minister John Howard was relieved of duty and all those who didn't support the war in Iraq felt so much better in an instant. I can't imagine what Americans themselves must be feeling now.

That's a lot of people!

Here I was thinking I could beat Atuuschaaw and post about this story here and in my Google Reader shared items page before him, but he beat me to it. Again. Whatever he's on I'd like to know what it is, where he gets it, how much it costs and what the side effects are. Actually I don't care about that last one.

As Barack Obama's inauguration (wow I spelt that correctly the first time!) draws closer and the world waits with baited breath to see what happens, he's already preparing with his Change.gov website and today he officially had his portrait taken. It's the first time a US president has had a digital photograph taken, very cool!

I know you can't judge a book by it's cover (a lousy analogy, what are blurbs for then?!) and I don't know what it is about the photo, but he looks far less cocky and much more trustworthy than that other guy. I've already forgotten his name, what is it? Greg?

Photo from the JudiciaryReport.com via a Google Image search. He's so creepy.

Given timezone differences this will be in some areas a few hours off and in other places up to a day off, but bear with me. Today is the first of the last single digit days that George W. Bush is in power. Doesn't that just excite the heck out of you?

As a caucasian person living in Asia, I am very much looking forward to being able to walk down the street without a few people glaring at me because they assume there's a chance I'm an American and voted for him. This has ebbed somewhat since Barack Obama won the election to end all elections, but I'll definitely feel more comfortable once he really has control of the ship.

I don't know enough about American politics, but is it possible to impeach him and Dick Cheney after they've left office? As in, would it theoretically be possible to screw up their legacy and have them officially disgraced? It'd be getting off easy after doing what they and their cronies have done, but it'd be start.

It's been just over a week since we've had another Rubenerd Fun Facts post... so here are another ten fresh Rubenerd Fun Facts! As I've mentioned previously, all these facts are irrefutable and 110% true.

If you missed them, feel free to refer to the previous Rubenerd Fun Facts posts (part one, part two, part three). And as usual, feel free to take notes.

1. While red cars do go faster, painted red stage coaches consistently show little to no improvement in performance.
2. It actually took two stones to kill the one bird.
3. Given development trends, Singapore airport is due to take up half the country and the seaport two thirds in 15 years.

   

4. Despite millions spent on positive advertising, polls show that women still perceive male programmers as less sexy than movie stars or garbage collectors.
5. The moon is not made from Swiss cheese but rather from an ancient block of smoked Gouda.
6. When asked by journalists, Sarah Palin couldn't define where South Australia was.

   

7. The British Pound symbol and the simplified Chinese character for number 5 look like bus shelters.
8. "xoxo" at the end of letters and email refer to eXtensible Open XHTML Outlines
9. Adelaide Metro train line capacity is calculated by dividing the number of people using it by 6 and providing adequate rolling stock for that number.

   

10. Pennyfathings were so named because they cost a cent and could take you very far-thing.
11. Any economic downturn caused by mistakes is termed a "correction" unless said mistakes were perpetrated by blue collar workers.
12. Posting images of your laptop with a Windows serial number still attached will get your 12 Windows activations used up pretty fast.

    

This really made my morning!

Provided by Terri Noble on today's Whole Wheat Radio collaboration page. Well actually it was yesterday's collaboration page for us here, but let's not make this time-zone whatnot any more confusing than it already is. I only just got used to using daylight savings again.