Not that you would, but you could. Especially since I’ve switched back to darrenhe@post.
March 4, 2009
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January 20, 2009
Inauguration
I just saw it online! Wish i could have gone to D.C. to see it, but the crowd looked even bigger than ones I’ve seen in China on an average day.
November 4, 2008
Calling the Election
I’m going to be covering the election from my blog! Okay, that would be slightly pointless, given all that all the news channels and web sites are covering it with much better technology and reporting.
A few things that I do wish for:
- Online voting: This would greatly increase voter participation, particularly among younger people. This might scare older people for that reason (and for security reasons, etc), but I think it’s worth it! Better than hanging chads, anyhow.
- More substance: Presidential elections feel like popularity contests. I thought this aspect of running was gone once you got past high school class elections, but obviously not.
- More clout: I wished I lived in a battleground state, so I could see what it is like to be showered with campaign ads, negative media, phone calls, answering machine messages….maybe not. I’ll just sit in the strongly blue states of Massachusetts and California. Those will never vote Republican anytime soon. “Ohio ohio!”
- More tests: Popular/electoral votes only one part of the presidential race. Also need to win in arm-wrestling competition, bicycle sprint, and SAT scores.
- More TVs: I want one in my room.
Thanks for tuning in!
Update: 8:15 PM EST
OMG, Texas is blue! Okay, <1% precincts reporting, but what a strange map. New York Times would have done better just to keep the state grey until more results came in.
Blue Texas
Update: 8:45 PM EST
New York Times still has only a few states reported, but NBC already has a bunch! I’m undecided between whether it’s better to be conservative or aggressive in forecasts. Or you could be like Fox News and try to get best of both worlds: leave the electoral map basically blank, but have flashing news headlines calling states every which way.
Aggressive Election Forecasting
Update: 9:15 PM
I have a lot of tabs open: NYT, Yahoo! (AP), WSJ, ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX, and some other ones. Someone, somewhere, is getting paid to do this. If you happened to be depending on my blog for the latest, best, unbiased, accurate, and comprehensive election news: When we wake up tomorrow morning, the president will be…
George Bush!
Update: 9:50 PM
Guess I was wrong about NBC being the most aggressive. The award for the earliest forecaster goes to: The Harvard Crimson!
Harvard Crimson
Update: 10:40 PM
My latest election reports:
- Yahoo! News has a nice cover of a smiling Obama with the headline “Obama takes Commanding Lead.”
- They should increase the total number of electoral votes so the winners needs to take 300. This is no longer America, this is SPARTA!
- Obama’s pretty much won this.
- Poor George Bush, the lame-duck-president. Especially so with an election this dramatic.
The Singer Solution to World Poverty (circa 1999)
“A” pointed me out to this article by Peter Singer. I’d link “A” here, but she doesnt have a blog, website, etc. The article describes some moral ponderings, not at all unlike the standard examples from Professor Sandel’s Justice class here at Harvard. Does Bob divert a train to save a child at the expense of a new Bugatti he saved up years for?
The difference is the extension to charity? Do you skip an expensive dinner ($200) so that you can help one malnourished child become healthy? When do you stop? At $1000? At one-fifth of your income? Or do you wait until you’re a billionaire and then make headlines by donating all of your money?
I agree with many of Singer’s points, but I think it takes a rather one-sided view of the entire situation. Won’t Bob’s incentive to work extra or harder be diminished if he knows all the money is going to charity? Does throwing money at charities really solve the original problem? What do you think?