Tag: barack obama

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How were my predictions for 2008?

The Christmas decorations are in the shops, people are having Christmas parties, the current affairs programs are off TV, so the year has ended, right? What do you mean, your calendar has something called “December”? Bah! This is the 21st Century! One-twelfth of the year is just thrown away!

Back in January I made some Predictions for 2008. Since 2008 has already ended, let’s see how I went.

Continue reading “How were my predictions for 2008?”

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Links for 19 November 2008 through 20 November 2008

Stilgherrian’s links for 19 November 2008 through 20 November 2008, gathered despite the rain:

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Links for 17 November 2008 through 18 November 2008

Stilgherrian’s links for 17 November 2008 through 18 November 2008, thinned with cheap turpentine:

  • NSW Government in Exile: “NSW is mired in incompetence and corruption. No-one in or near power appears able to come up with a coherent policy or plan. So let’s start.” Aparently I’m minister for infrasructure.
  • HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter | Mashable: “The strength of your community determines overall what you will (or won’t) get out of the microblogging platform. What do you want to use Twitter for?” Sarah Evans offers some good tips.
  • HOW NOT TO: Build Your Twitter Community | Mashable: The flipside to Sarah Evans’ previous post.
  • What the family values folks don't get about family | denialism blog: “The anti-gay marriage folks think that family is all about fear, sex, and violence… These folks who fought for Prop 8 don’t understand the real meaning of family, of love, of comfort. For most of us, it’s not about fulfilling one fringe group’s idea of what God wants. It’s about creating a life with another, sharing a physical and emotional space with someone, rejoicing together when things are good, and holding each other when things are tough. It’s human.”
  • Twitter is Real Life | Aide-mémoire: The ever-thoughtful Kate Carruthers has written an excellent piece countering the “Twitter is dead” meme which seems to surface from time to time. Yes, she says nice things about me (again), but there are good bits too.
  • 30 Hilarious TV Meltdowns, Outbursts & Blunders | ClearlyAV: A collection of 30 videos which are (mostly) people losing their temper on TV.
  • Green ICT Symposium 2008: The presentations for this conference, held in Canberra last Friday 14 November 2008, are now online.
  • SSL Certificate Tester | digicert: While I don’t use digicert to buy my SSL certificates, this handy test page is good for showing the status of SSL certificates installed on your web server.
  • Making money twice | 37signals: A good portion of this industry is still trying to figure out how to make money for the first time (hint: charge people). But for those who’ve mastered that, I want to talk about the next step: making money twice (or three or four times).
  • NYT: Obama saying goodbye to BlackBerry? | msnbc.com: The limitations on the President, both legal and security-based, mean that Barack Obama may have to give up using email. Unable to get unfiltered access to The Real World, he’ll become increasingly dependent on a worldview filtered through his “advisors”.
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Echoes of America’s racial history

Map showing correlation between US cotton production in 1860 and votes for Barack Obama in 2008

Much has been said of the supposed racial element in the election of Barack Obama as the next President of the United States. This map shows how deep the historical roots run.

The base area map shows in blue the counties which recorded a majority of votes for Obama. The overlay dot map shows US cotton production from 1860 — each dot represents 2000 bales. The similarity of the distribution is uncanny a century and half later.

It’s worth reading the comments on the original post at Strange Maps as people attempt to explain the finer details.

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More Links for 16 November 2008

Here’s another batch web links for 16 November 2008, posted semi-automatically.

  • Where Attention Flows, Money Follows | Kevin Kelly : The Technium: “The new rules for the new economy can be summarized as: Where ever attention flows, money will follow. Almost anything else except attention can be manufactured as a commodity. Luxury goods are only luxuries temporarily. They quickly are counterfeited and commodified. Premium brands are only premium because they garner a surplus of attention. Maintain an incoming flow of attention and money will follow.”
  • “Firewalls Under Fire”: Mark Newton talks internet censorship on Today show" | Hoyden About Town: Karl Stefanovic interviewed internet service provision expert and outspoken censorship critic Mark Newton on Friday’s Today Show. Here’s a transcript.
  • Ericsson W25 Fixed Wireless Terminal, 3G Fixed Wireless Terminal, EDGE, UTMS, 3G, Gateway, HSDPA: One one side it’s a standard Internet gateway device with Wi-Fi and 4-port Ethernet switch. On the other side it’s HSUPA mobile broadband. In between, it can run off an internal battery for 3 hours should the power fail. Add it all up and maybe this is what Stilgherrian Live can use for mobile programs. At least Our Man At Telstra thinks so. Stand by.
  • How to defeat internet censorship | DanuPoyner.com: “If you think we will defeat internet filtering just by being right or just because the facts are on our side — think again. This is politics. If we don'’to hear it – we WILL lose.” A good analysis.
  • Dr Google | Memex 1.1: Google search trends can predict flu outbreaks 7 to 10 days ahead of the US Centres for Disease Control.
  • The Barack SlideShow | Tools of Change for Publishing: “What’s notable is that the images are fairly informal — and they are on Flickr. This kind of photostream — not unique in itself — would previously, a generation ago, have been highly curated, entitled ‘The new presidential family waits for news’ and published the week following in Life or Look magazine. However, the Obama pictures appear less curated (or at least have that air), were published nearly instantly, and do not involve the mediation of traditional media. In fact, whether these are eventually printed or not as official administration photos is secondary, because they are available freely and publicly online.”
  • Election Night 11-04-08 | Flickr: An 82-image slideshow of how Barack Obama and his family spent election night, posted by BarackObama.com.
  • What I learned about Blogging from the US Presidential Election | ProBlogger: Guest writer Trisha from Ideas for Women points out the importance of having a personal narrative in your blog. I’m not sure whether I agree for all blogs, but it’s food for thought.
  • Japanese Sewer System | + megabunny: Apparently this is actually a flood control system rather than a sewer system, but it's still a fine set of photographs of this massive infrastructure project, only slightly spoilt by the unimaginative comparison to The Matrix.
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Links for 16 November 2008

Here are the web links I’ve found for 16 November 2008, posted automatically and not.