Wonderful Snark

Math notes: progress on my “resonance” problem!

I better get cracking though.

Humor: a couple of days ago I reported on a 30K footrace and showed some photo proofs. I admitted that I was a bit out of shape and didn’t walk my fastest race.

Well, one of my ever loving friends responded thusly:

I was sort of wondering whether you were hoping to help or hurt Obama by wearing that T-shirt going that slow [...]
I guess there are a lot more slow and fat people than fast and thin ones

I just about blew my drink all over my keyboard and interrupted work in the neighboring offices with my loud cackling….

With “friends” like these….

End of Lazy Mornings

Workout notes Up later than usual, I hated my yoga class. The run: 2 miles (plus) in 18:44 on the track, then 2 mile hill run on the treadmill, then 2 mile walk in 26:03 on the track. Quit 2 miles early due to left knee/lower hamstring whine; probably from yesterday’s cycling and squats. My weight is too high and my legs too weak.

Some notes:

Yet another Einstein prediction is true. From Science Avenger:

Once again, science gets confirmational evidence while the deniers just play rhetorical games. In a shot to Einstein’s deniers, a stellar formation called an “Einstein Ring”, which would not exist were it not for the relativistic effect of gravity bending light, has been found for the first time in duplicate…

Go to Science Avenger’s blog for a link to the photos.

Atheist humor: Aphorisms.

From Friendly Atheist. I’ll list a few:

# Too Stupid to Understand Science? Try Religion.

(my note: I’d replace “religion” by “fundamentalist religion”)

# There’s A REASON Why Atheists Don’t Fly Planes Into Buildings

# “Worship Me or I Will Torture You Forever. Have a Nice Day.”­ God.

# God Doesn’t Kill People. People Who Believe in God Kill People.

# “Intelligent Design” Helping Stupid People Feel Smart Since 1987

# Q. How Can You Tell That Your God is Man-made?

A. If He Hates All the Same People You Do.

# Another Godless Atheist for Peace and World Harmony

Politics
Here is a classic example why you shouldn’t try to “help your candidate on your own” without at least contacting the campaign staff.

Basically, an individual Obama supporter decided to print out some flyers on his own and to distribute them. He didn’t check with the official Obama campaign. He then realized that this was a bad idea (they reflected very poorly on the Obama campaign) and stopped it. But the damage had been done, and the Hill-a-bots have picked this up and are smearing the Obama campaign. Example: here. No, the Hill-a-bots are too doing this on their own; the HRC campaign is NOT involved.

This is a classic case of supporters of the two campaigns fighting with each other and the fight having nothing to do with the campaigns themselves. Yes, in this case, the Obama supporter started it by doing something stupid.

So, let this be a lesson to all of my fellow Obama supporters: let’s please be careful about what we do for “our” candidate. If we aren’t careful, we might be doing more harm than good.

More political humor From the Daily Kos;

1. If you get this joke, you are a true Kossak.

2. Some images that poke fun of the latest Obama-Clinton dust up:

Yes, these are photoshops by an Edwards supporter!

Obama-Clinton Truce?

I’ve talked about some of the animosity between Clinton and Obama that I’ve seen on the Daily Kos. Evidently, it isn’t limited to there. There was hostility among party leaders:

LAS VEGAS — After staying on the sidelines in the first year of the campaign, race and to a lesser extent gender have burst into the forefront of the Democratic presidential contest, thrusting Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton into the middle of a sharp-edged social and political debate that transcends their candidacies.

In a tense day of exchanges by the candidates and their supporters, Mrs. Clinton suggested on Sunday that Mr. Obama’s campaign, in an effort to inject race into the contest, distorted remarks she had made about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr. Obama tartly dismissed Mrs. Clinton’s suggestion, adding that “the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous.”

Mr. Obama’s campaign then attacked Mrs. Clinton for failing to repudiate one of her top black supporters for “engaging in the politics of destruction” with an apparent reference to Mr. Obama’s acknowledged drug use in the past. And throughout the day, supporters of Mrs. Clinton and of Mr. Obama each accused the other of injecting race in search of political gain.

The exchanges created apprehension among many of their supporters who viewed this moment — if perhaps inevitable, given the nature of the contest — as divisive for Democrats. At the same time, it offered a portrait of a party struggling through entirely unfamiliar terrain that has been brought into relief by Mr. Obama’s victory in Iowa and Mrs. Clinton’s in New Hampshire. [...]

Mr. Obama spoke in general terms Sunday about the attacks on his candidacy on a day when Mrs. Clinton specifically challenged his record on opposing the Iraq war.

“I think they have decided to run a relentlessly negative campaign, and I don’t think anybody who’s watching would deny that,” he said. “I gather that she’s determined that instead of trying to sell herself on why she would be the best president, she’s trying to convince folks that I wouldn’t be a good one.”

Aides to both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama expressed squeamishness at the direction the conversation was heading. And publicly, the campaigns spent much of the day shadow-boxing on an issue that advisers to both of them described as volatile. The issue broke through when Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, who appeared at a rally with Mrs. Clinton in Columbia, S.C., seemed to allude to Mr. Obama’s use of cocaine as a young man. [...]

And, even more interestingly for me, there is hostility among the rank and file too:

[...]Lately, it seems that the Democratic Party is falling back into its bad habits and foolish ways. Just walk down the streets of NYC and mention the words Hillary or Obama and you find good friends screaming at each other, family members sleeping on couches, and more divisiveness than unity. It is sad — but apparently unavoidable. Just look at yesterday’s nasty exchanges and today’s New York Times headlines.

Reality: We are a nation arguably on the cusp of a third war (with Iran) and already in an economic recession (heck, even President Bush is starting to admit it). We are overdue for another domestic terrorist attack. We are disliked (if not outright hated) by much of the world. We have made little progress when it comes to global warming. Millions can’t afford health care.

Given this situation, I am sick and tired of Democrats being disorganized, self-interested, and destructive to each other and to our country.

I have an opinion all right; it is my guess that the Clintons aren’t used to being challenged from their own party.

But it appears as if the two camps are calling for people to cool off a bit, as are prominent journalists.

I’ll say this right now: I don’t trust HRC to keep a truce.

Perhaps I’ll be proved wrong.

Something Positive: Obama meet up
This evening Barbara and I went to an Obama meet up. I have a call list, a date to walk with the campaign, and an obligation to write a letter to the editor.

Though Obama has Illinois all but wrapped up, we are a proportional delegate state, and delegates are awarded by congressional district. In our district, we have 4 delegates to be assigned with one delegate per 18.5 percent of the vote. Hence, if we get 88 percent in our district, we get all 4 delegates. If we only get 81 percent, we only get 3 out of the 4 delegates. Hence, “running up the score” is important to us, and “just getting on the board” is important to them.

Some photos:

Political Humor

Kos members living in Michigan are invited to vote for Mitt Romney, as Michigan has no Democratic delegates (as of right now)