I haven’t picked on President Bush for some time with the primaries occupying most of my attention. But there’s so little time left and it felt like it was time to give him another raspberry because, well, who deserves it more than he does? Yesterday the headlines read: Bush says “Stimulus may be working.”

Yet, the surrounding headlines read:

• Dow falls 394.64 points
• Oil zooms nearly 9 percent higher to record $139
• U.S. unemployment rate surges to 5.5 percent

All of these headlines appeared on the same day in close proximity on my RSS reader! Does this man not have advisors? Does he have no idea about what is happening in the country he’s nominally leading? Someone buy this man a clue!

Thinking back to the TV show Seinfeld, character George Costanza stumbles into a situation where he realizes that if he does or says the opposite of whatever comes to mind, life improves. If ever there were a world leader like that, it’s our President Bush. He should carefully consider what his first inclination is to say or do and promptly do the opposite. I think he’d find more credibility and heck, maybe he could even do some good in his last 226 days in office, not that I’m counting…

Nah, who am I kidding, he should just take the rest of the term off in vacation. He’s averaging 62 days a year, or 12 weeks, probably a little more vacation than you get.

For your viewing pleasure, here’s George (Costanza) learning the benefits of the opposite:

A lighthouse at Point Montara is shown in Montara, Calif., Wednesday, June 4, 2008. According to lighthouse researchers, this lighthouse was first erected in 1881 overlooking Wellfleet Harbor in Wellfleet, Mass. and had been moved by the Coast Guard from Wellfleet to Yerba Buena, Calif., and eventually to Point Montara.

It seems this lighthouse disappeared and no one knew where it went after it left Wellfleet. It turns out that this is the lighthouse about 300m south of my house, very interesting. Thanks for the tip David.

A couple of weeks ago I switched jobs, this constitutes an upgrade in every possible dimension except for two: my commute now does suck, badly and my blogging time has been reduced to virtually nil. That’s not to say it will be like this forever, but learning a new technology domain, product portfolio, personalities in a fair-sized, internationally distributed environment, and needing to make nearly immediate assessments about resource allocation and focus pretty much are wringing the intellectual energy out right now.

So, the net of this is, while I come up to speed in the new role, I expect blogging to be a little choppy. Perhaps there will be times when I can’t really hold back from saying something – but for now, the time required is in short supply, so bear with me and I’ll get back into a routine in the relatively near future.

Now, something for all those people who might be feeling a little frustration at work, maybe feeling a little angry toward office equipment…

Wayne’s World – Game On!


If you’ve ever lived in the suburbs in the summer, “Game On!” is a common refrain after the even more familiar “Car!” when the kids move the game off the street like roaches scurrying away when the light is turned on…

Well, the Car in the form of Hillary has now passed and the game is on between McCain and Obama. While I have not yet decided between the candidates, they both represent an upgrade over the present yahoo occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Ave (meaning no offense to the company Yahoo which has troubles of its own recently…)

We should expect McCain to run a campaign emphasizes his experience, leadership, and military service that is familiar enough to keep the Republican base, but seeking a distinct flavor to distance itself from the largely failed domestic and foreign policies of the Bush Administration. Don’t expect to see George too often campaigning for John…That’s going to be a tricky balance, but just by showing up, McCain will get 40% of the vote.

Obama’s campaign is much easier, he will find a few core issues with high dissatisfaction and paint himself as an agent of change using his superior oratory skills to paint a vision of the future that is compelling. Obama’s challenge is to get a bit more grounded to pick-up the blue collar bigots, (ooops) I mean voters, who broke big for Hillary during the campaign. If they will only listen, he’s got a shot. But let’s just say this segment of the population hasn’t been known historically for their ability to listen, evaluate, and choose effectively.

This year, more than in years past, running mates are going to make a big difference. For McCain because of his age leading to questions about survivability and for Obama due to his perceived lack of experience, and sad as it is to write, questions about his survivability. If McCain chooses someone like Huckabee, he’ll lose the 10% of voters he’s looking to sway. If Obama chooses Hillary, he’ll get 40% for just showing up, but will likely send the vital 10% to McCain. Let’s just say the choice matters for both candidates more this year than in the past.

Game On!

Researchers have gotten back to nature looking at shapes and structures in the natural world to dictate robot design. In the video below from New Scientist, there are self-configuring robots, bots that interact successfully with cockroaches, and faux-salamanders and geckos. It’s a quick view and if you’re interested in robotics, a fun video to watch. Enjoy!