> ‘The West Wing’ Predicting the Election?

Terence pointed me to an interesting article in the NY Times comparing the fictional presidential campaigns of Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Arnie Vinick (Alan Alda) on The West Wing with those of Obama and McCain. Strangely, there are a lot of parallels between the current presidential campaign and this fictional one. I’d say the biggest difference is the current office-holder: on TV, we have a Democratic, much-liked president, while in reality, we have a Republican, whom a vast majority of America is displeased with (to say the least). The article is well worth reading.

In case you didn't know, I'm a huge fan of The West Wing. The writing is exceptional, the set is unbelievably real, and the casting is top-notch. I know I’d vote for Jed Bartlet any day.

Original NY Times article

> Breakfast for President

This makes my inner-fatty happy.

via bb-blog

Relive Your Childhood Through MTV Music

I imagine everyone has seen or heard of this by now, but MTV released a new site called MTV Music with a huge archive of music (and other) videos. A friend of mine actually works in the product group that developed this venture over at MTV. He had mentioned that MTV had been working to digitize their collection of videos for some time and now we have the result. I particularly love how clean and simple the site is. Makes it easy to find what you want and enjoy the videos.

Having grown up without cable and little pop culture to speak of, music videos are still pretty foreign to me. At least now I can brush up easily. Anyone care to educate me? Any must-see’s of years past?

Image respectfully borrowed (and linked) from MTV Music

> Bringing New Meaning to Subway Entertainment

There’s been a lot of racy subway talk on the local blogs lately, but this takes the cake. Click the headline to read an hysterical story about some chick watching full-on hardcore porn on her iPod. And the entire subway car got into it. It’s safe for work, unless you’re prone to peeing your pants laughing. Why can’t this shit happen on the over-crowded 4 trains I take?

via Curbed

> USB Port: Not What You Think

Clever. Though I’m not sure I want to try it. I like the graphic design a lot—especially the juxtaposition of the tree and USB logo.

via Wired’s Gadget Lab

Coming Soon: Field Trips to Gay Bars

Last night I was listening to a NPR podcast (Most Emailed Stories) and heard a hilarious satire of Califoria’s Prop 8, which I wrote about last week. Here are the audio links—it’s definitely worth a listen. (Apologies that that NPR doesn't yet have an embeddable player; I searched high and low.)

What 'No' On Gay Marriage Ban Means For Kids

October 29, 2008 | NPR

Real | Windows | MP3

iPhone Gets Some Podcast Love

So m@ tipped me off to an upcoming feature on the iPhone. According to MacRumors, you'll be able to download new podcasts over the ether (no more iTunes sync!). I just hope that Apple lets podcast syncing happen in the background. The less I have to think about syncing stuff before getting in the subway, the better. Anyone else share the podcast love?

Conflicted Pedestrian

Came across this pedestrian signal (left) as I was walking home this evening at 89th & 2nd Ave. Things like these always make me chuckle. What surprises me is how often I see signals like this. At right, you'll find another I caught last weekend down in the East Village.

This makes the engineer (read: nerd) in me wonder how this happens. I would fully understand seeing a signal with the hand or the man broken, resulting in a prolonged blank image, but both together? Logically, the man and the hand should be two binary states to a common switch--phrased in a more pedestrian manner (couldn't resist), two sides of a coin. This is where I turn to the Inter-web to satiate my curiosity.

15 minutes later
One of the rare times the Internet has failed me. Maybe I just lost interest too quickly. But hey, if I decide I really care enough to know, I can enroll in Berkley's Traffic Signal Engineering Academy. Or not.

Cheers to Apple & Google

No, not another new product or feature to drool over. Today, Apple released a brief statement in opposition to California’s Proposition 8.

Prop 8 is a ballot initiative to elimiate same sex couples’ right to marry in the state. The California Supreme Court struck down a prior statute that defined marriage in terms I'm frankly sick of hearing: “between one man and one woman,” and effectively granted everyone the right to marry whomever they choose.

Apple is taking an unusual stance for corporations—a type of corporate citizenship that is refreshing—and not only opposing Prop 8, but donating to the No on 8 campaign. Apple’s full text:

Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8 and making a donation of $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign. Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights—including the right to marry—should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8.

Google also spoke out publicly against Prop 8 last month in a posting by co-founder Sergey Brin on Google’s official blog.  Good job guys. Americans appreciate your support. One more reason to buy a new MacBook…

via Daring Fireball