A useful video this eve of the (supposedly) apocalyptic 2012 election:
How the Electoral College Works
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Election 2012: Four Worthy Men, Justice and Mercy
Here's a fantastic opinion piece from the Roanoke Times that is perfect reading for this day that is exactly one week before the big election:
Like many Americans — and despite the fact that it sometimes makes me squirm — I have watched all the debates. Chances are that you probably haven't, that is if the pollsters who describe you are right in saying that you haven't decided because you really don't feel strongly for or against either candidate.
That worries me a bit, because I talk to so few people who can, with conviction, say: Two dedicated Americans are hoping to become the next president. Both are devoted husbands and fathers. Both have spent a good amount of time in public service. Both have running mates with a combination of experience and skill that will stand our nation in good stead should whoever becomes the president be somehow incapacitated. Both have strong faith in a higher being and concern for their fellow Americans — and for those in the world not fortunate enough to be American.
Should we not all be grateful that, despite a Congress that seems to be able to do little other than argue and say no, four such able individuals have been willing to step up to the plate?
That's some pretty good stuff, but the best part to me is this:
But more than that, I hope that we who go to the polls will recognize that none of us earned the freedoms and opportunities that are ours. Our vote should be for the candidate we believe will assure that every American, no matter how dicey his or her beginning, will still have a chance.
Will some take undue advantage of the programs that offer those opportunities? Of course. Is that fair? No. I learned a very important lesson, though, from a man who grew up one of 12 children within the kind of poverty that dictated he quite literally had no shoes to wear until he went to school. "I hope," he said, "that God is just. But I pray that He is merciful."
That man was my father. Today, were he alive, I really am not sure for whom he would vote.
Of course I think this is the best part because I'm biased. The author of the piece is my mother, and the wise man of whom she speaks was my grandfather. I urge you to read the rest, not because it was written by my mother, but because she makes some great points. You don't even have to agree with her politics – her points are still worthy of thought.
Radical in Charlotte. Charlotte?
Let's be honest: if you had to guess the city that houses a sculpture called Metalmorphosis created by a Czech sculptor you're not likely to guess Charlotte, NC within the first 20, or maybe even 100, tries. Just goes to show that even the most mayonnaisey of cities can have its moments.
What is school for?
Not much to add to this TEDx presentation about education by Seth Godin. He provides lots of food for thought:
The Power of Words
If you've ever doubted the power of words you should read this letter, written to the family of Frank Ciulla, a victim of the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, by the Connells, the family who discovered his body on their land. It was written after the Ciullas had visited the Connells several years after the bombing. Here's a small excerpt:
It was just wonderful to meet you face-to-face. We needed to talk to you all too. As you said, we will get to know Frank through you. He was never just "another victim" to us. For months we called him "Our Boy." Then we found out his name. He was "Our Frank." Please believe me we were deeply affected by his coming to us. We will never forget our feelings seeing him there, a whole-bodied handsome man, the life gone out of him in a twinkling. We were just past trying to grasp the whole thing.
Then to have to leave him there, but he was visited throughout the night by police and a doctor and we went back again in the morning. He was a fellow man and he had come to us in the saddest way. So now through him we have you in our hearts, and please, we want you all to know that you are welcome here whenever you come.
The Connell Family
Not So Classic Music
Diego Stocco creates musical instruments, writes compositions to incorporate them all and then performs each part. Lazy bum.
Frankencells
Remember the hullabaloo over stem cell research back in the early days of this century? The issue wasn't really stem cell research in and of itself, but the use of human embryos as a source of stem cells. Well, our ever-curious scientists decided to go to the other end of the spectrum to see if they harvest stem cells from dead people:
Death will come for us all one day, but life will not fade from our bodies all at once. After our lungs stop breathing, our hearts stop beating, our minds stop racing, our bodies cool, and long after our vital signs cease, little pockets of cells can live for days, even weeks. Now scientists have harvested such cells from the scalps and brain linings of human corpses and reprogrammed them into stem cells.
In other words, dead people can yield living cells that can be converted into any cell or tissue in the body.
(H/T to Lex for the link).
Social Media Political Derangement Syndrome
Every four years we have to suffer through a Presidential campaign, but in the era of social media the agony has truly been heightened to an almost unbearable level. Not only do we have to listen to candidates and pundits, now we have to bear our (supposed) friends sharing their own, often wharped, views about the various candidates and their supporters. I have to admit I kind of snapped this morning and wrote this on Facebook:
An interpretation of modern American politics based on extensive reading of my friends' Facebook and Twitter posts – in four paragraphs:
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Teach a Republican to fish and he hires all the non-union fishermen, pays them minimum wage, decimates the fishery, ships the entire catch to the Cayman Islands and has them stored in a secret freezer. He keeps a small portion in the states to live off of day-to-day and pays capital gains on it. Fires all the fishermen and figures out a way to get more fish in China. Blame the lack of fish in American waters on the Godless Democrats' turning us into a non-Christian nation and hope that no one has actually read the Bill of Rights.
Teach a Democrat to fish and he establishes a Department of Fishing, writes 3,425 pages of regulations, hires all the fishermen, pays them so-so wages but gives them killer pensions, accidentally decimates the fishery and taxes the cattlemen to help pay for the clean up. When they get mad he starts talking about rising tides lifting all boats, but gets distracted and starts blaming the Republicans for global warming.
The Green Party candidate doesn't eat fish so he fries up some tofu and calls the Democrat and Republican mean names.
Admittedly it's not very witty, nor very inciteful, but it made me feel better. Sure, I could turn off social media, but then I'd lose out on this unprecedented opportunity to learn exactly how wharped many of my "friends" are.
I’ll Do as I Do, Not as I Say I’ll Do
During a presentation I gave last week at ConvergeSouth I mentioned that, in my experience, making decisions based on survey results was a dangerous proposition. For instance, when I was working in a marketing department we'd constantly ask customers if they'd be willing to spend $x on a product they'd say "yes" and then we'd send them an offer with that exact price and a rare few would actually buy it. In other words we learned real fast to follow the money and largely ignore what people said they'd spend.
Here's the thing: we knew people weren't lying to us, but it was a lot easier for them to say they'd spend money than to actually spend it. In essence they were lying to themselves. According to this interview on Freakonomics most of us are very good at lying to ourselves:
DUBNER: I wouldn’t say you’re wrong there, but let me also say this: we lie to ourselves all the time. We’re constantly trying to predict how we’re going to behave in the future when something happens. A tax hike. A price change. A Presidential election. And we’re almost always wrong. Take something as simple as driving. The American Automobile Association is constantly surveying drivers. They’ll say something like, “if gas prices stay as high as they are now, or go up, will you drive less?” And people always say, “oh, absolutely!” And then you look at the data and they do not drive less. Here’s Joel Weichsel with AAA:
Joel WEICHSEL: “I think there may be people who lie to themselves, or imagine that they’re doing something that they’re not. But I think there are also people who maybe forget about things that they’ve done.
RYSSDAL: “Forget?” He’s being very polite and saying “we’re lying to ourselves.” That’s what he’s saying.
DUBNER: It’s a synonym. But I will say this: I don’t believe it’s necessarily intentional. One problem with any survey is that the power of suggestion comes into play.
The full interview can be heard here and it's worth a listen:
A Doctor Describes Losing a Daughter to Cancer
Reading about anyone's loss of a child to cancer is terrible, but somehow reading a doctor's account of losing his adult daughter to an incredibly aggressive malignancy makes it seem even worse:
Her oncologist arrives in a few minutes. Comparison of chest C-T’s shows that the undifferentiated tumor in her lung has doubled in size in less than three weeks. The hopelessness of the situation is discussed with her husband, and a decision is made with the assistance of a hospice physician to provide comfort care. She receives ice chips, and morphine is administered. About four hours later, she enters a peaceful coma and dies at 6:30 am on August 29, just 20 days after the initial MRI demonstrated the brain tumors.
The purpose of this brief chronicle is not to criticize the practice of medicine. While I had several disagreements with non-physicians, the physicians who cared for my daughter, without exception, were very understanding and gave freely of their time. Each did everything possible to deal with her enormously aggressive malignancy. Rather, I have attempted to relate the experiences of a father/physician as he watches his daughter die of cancer. Her course was a testament to the limitations of medical care. In this era of molecular biology, the most valuable medication was morphine, a drug that has been available for almost 200 years.
Although painful, I am capable of describing the events of my daughter’s illness. When I try to describe my despair and grief, words fail.
Befuddled 