What A Wreck

Check out this awesome boat...

The awesomeness level is increased with the knowledge that it's a sculpture, and that it moves along like a boat.  It's called love love and you can get the details, including a video on artist Julien Berthier's site.

A little Captain Jack Sparrowish no... (and I can't find a video of him stepping onto the dock as the raft sinks, so use your imagination)

(via RC)

And Maybe We Shouldn't Let Everyone Vote

I'm actually not going to make that argument, I'm a pretty staunch advocate of fuller and more direct democracy (at least in theory).  That said this recent piece of polling from Bloomberg is just another reason to not be surprised with the outcomes of American elections.  In short most voters are stupid and highly uninformed...

52-19 likely voters told Bloomberg that income taxes had gone up for the middle class under the Obama Administration.

And yet...

The Obama administration has cut taxes -- largely for the middle class -- by $240 billion since taking office on Jan. 20, 2009. A program aimed at families earning less than $150,000 that was contained in the stimulus package lowered the burden for 95 percent of working Americans by $116 billion, or about $400 per year for individuals and $800 for married couples. Other measures include breaks for college education, moderate- income families and the unemployed and incentives to promote renewable energy. 

That's a pretty unflattering piece of info right there.

(via HTWW)

Voting

I voted last week, and it was terrific.  North Carolina allows people to vote early for most of October, it's a chance to avoid the hassle and crowds that often accompany election day.  And while I didn't take advantage of it, early voting is when you can register and vote in one fell swoop in NC.

If you haven't voted yet go do it, and if you're in North Carolina keep this in mind when you're filling in your ovals...

via the Indy

Elaine Marshall on the other hand is a pretty accomplished lady, she got my vote.

Saving Money, Saving The Planet

People like to save money, if you show them how to do it (especially if it's easy) they will.  It never ceases to amaze me what a poor job of using this piece of information environmentalists do.  If you can get folks to cut their energy usage because it saves them money, do it.  Don't bother with a bid spiel about how it will save the planet or combat global warming or so on.  People don't need to care about saving the planet to help do so.

Why climate change prevention advocates aren't more results oriented is a mystery that I've given up trying to solve.  I'm with Richard Branson on this one who told the New Yorker (in a great innovators issue profile a few years ago) that we will eventually save the planet because it will make the people who come up with the solutions very, very rich.  That works on a small scale too.  Showing people that if they change to CFL bulbs, unplug electronics when not in use, and turn down the thermostat a couple of degrees they'll save on their utility bills is the same thing only on a micro scale.

Saving the world is nice and all, but financial incentives are powerful motivators.

So it was great to see the front page piece in the NYT last Tuesday about a group on Kansas that has taken this tact and successfully gotten several small towns to reduce their energy consumption and their bills, all without mentioning climate change or saving the planet. 

Getting 5% energy reductions in the Midwest, where only 48% of people agree that climate change is an issue is an amazing feat.  This is a project that needs instant replication everywhere. 

Be sure to read the whole story.  The NYT also has a page for the Beyond Fossil Fuels series of which this story is a part, and a slide show of the Kansas towns involved in the project.

Juan Williams Will Never Be Able To Leave His House

Once he sees all of this 'Muslim Garb' everywhere, check out the new 'Muslim Garb' tumblr...

Like the king of Jordan, actor Alexander Siddig is also fond of Muslim Star Trek garb.

 

 

(via TPM)

Obamacare

Yep that's a crock of shit name.  Jack Black's latest is either going to be a lot of fun or kind of terrible, it's too early to tell.  Either way we're probably in for quite the ride...



Episode two is up already.  You can read an interview with some of the folks behind the project, including HCAN, at Speakeasy.

Yep, that's America Ferrera.

Read This Now - Ladies & Gentlemen, Kevin Drum

I haven't been following Kevin Drum since he moved on to MoJo.  I don't remember why exactly, but it probably had to do with how his posts and feed appeared in my google reader.

It seems that I may have been missing some good stuff though, if his latest is any measure of what he has been up to...

But you can't just say this, even though it's plainly true. You have to pretend to take conservative arguments about this seriously. You have to write detailed responses, complete with quotes from law professors and health experts. You have to pretend that this is an actual issue, not just a handy attack point. And so we all spend mountains of time in a sort of pundit fantasyland where we all agree to talk about stuff that we all know nobody truly cares about.

Go read the whole thing to find out what exactly he's talking about.  Or don't, he's made his point in that graph alone.

(via EK)