thank you, ma'am

I'm told that The World Association of Modelers is having their first annual Biologically Accurate Modeling Meeting:

http://www.WAM-BAMM.org

In Texas, of course.

Now, it's no secret that I enjoy messing around with acronyms (such as JUNG and IDL (which doesn't actually stand for Intern Desk Location, certain indicators notwithstanding).) But (a) these phrases are kind of lame, and (b) what were they thinking?

Ralph Nadir [sic]

Ralph:

I am a registered independent, and have been since I first registered to vote. I voted for you in the 1996 and 2000 elections. I believe that our political system would be better off with weaker parties (and more of them). I think that you have a point about corporate influence, in politics and elsewhere. (Yes, governments have a lot of power and influence, too--but I can vote politicians out of office, and I can vote on referenda. Unless a corporate officer is caught with his hand in the cookie jar or equivalent, the only influence that we can have on corporate actions and policies is indirect.)

I think that the actions on the part of the Democratic Party, insofar as they are focused solely on making sure that you don't qualify for the ballot, are reprehensible. (I haven't decided yet whether I think that the Republican tactics of supporting Ralph as a foil to the Democrats, both legally and financially, are better or worse.)

But Ralph, you're being used as a tool. Admit it.

And for someone who likes to present yourself as the only candidate that's being honest and direct, you're sure making some incredibly dishonest statements (NYT article, 15 October 2004). For example (to quote from that article):

Mr. Nader maintained in the interview "there is no evidence" that he takes votes from Mr. Kerry. He said surveys by Zogby showed him pulling equally from Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry.

A spokeswoman for Zogby International, Shawnta Walcott, said that Zogby polls showed Mr. Nader drawing far more from Mr. Kerry. She said the polls, aggregated from March through last month, showed that if Mr. Nader was not an option, 41 percent of his supporters went to Mr. Kerry and 15 percent went to Mr. Bush. Thirty percent went elsewhere and 13 percent were undecided.

In addition to that: Ralph, where the hell have you been for the past 3 years? Where were your policy statements on the issues of the day? Your news releases? Who's in your shadow cabinet? Yeah, you were interviewed on Slashdot recently. But for someone that claims that they want to run this country, you sure disappear a lot in between elections.

I feel that I can't really say that you shouldn't run because you might be a spoiler candidate: that's a product of having multiple candidates. As much as I feel that Bush needs to get the boot, as long as we have this voting system (one vote per person per office) all I can do is hope that each voter will take into account not only who they most want to win, but who they most want to lose. So given that, Ralph, why are you not focusing your considerable influence on advancing the use of these voting methods? You'd do far more good for third parties in general than you ever will by running for president. (Where's my Condorcet voting, damnit? Or even Instant Runoff voting?)

Ralph, your primary appeal as a candidate was based on your condemnation of undue influence, whether corporate or otherwise; you used as evidence of this influence the amounts and sources of funding. Your acceptance--and defense--of dirty money has caused me to lose my last vestige of respect for you as a political candidate. Go back to doing what you did best: protecting consumers via dogged legal action.

question time

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/2004_10_01_archive.asp#109781563354113574

obligatory collective uniqueness meme posting

(I find the randomly selected music to be highly amusingly ironic for this post.)

Since my brand-spankin'-new LJ is as yet pretty friend-light, I'm going to go for the considerably more difficult task of trying to identify things that none of my friends (in the larger sense) are likely to have. This excludes my wife because, well, you know, what's mine is hers and all that.

Name a CD you own that no-one else on your friends list does:
My advisor's brother recently put out an album of Irish music entitled Up and Away. (It's pretty good, and incidentally features my advisor on piano on a few tracks. :> )

Name a book you own that no-one else on your friends list does:
Hmm. Judea Pearl's Causality is probably a good bet. Failing that...I could throw in some deservedly obscure books I acquired for free, such as William Goldman's Magic.

Name a movie you own on DVD/VHS/whatever that no-one else on your friends list does:
I'm going to put my money on A Room With A View. If I have to, I'll fall back on Rose-Marie or Naughty Marietta, but since I've never seen either of them (they were part of my wife's contribution to our collection) I sort of feel that would be cheating.

Name a place that you have visited that no-one else on your friends list has:
Puebla, Mexico. If necessary I could get even more obscure with some of the places nearby that the Men In Blaque performed at during our tour there.

Pirates and Emperors

http://www.piratesandemperors.com/

Not a new theme, but one worth contemplating. The "Schoolhouse Rock!" style works very well.

pondering election-related activism options

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/opinion/11mon1.html

http://www.electionprotection2004.org/

http://www.verifiedvoting.org/techwatch/

This is, of course, not counting the various options for get-out-the-vote efforts.