I have been out of town for a few days and i completely missed that COCORE has put up eleven of these billboards on the Colorado front range.1
Or, rather, they wanted to put those billboards on the front range. It seems the have had to settle for just Denver and Colorado Springs because Next Media refused to carry the message in the cities it serves. I am disappointed that even today there are companies that are willing to enforce theistic censorship, but at least there are some willing to take our money.
It also seems that there have been some complaints by “christians” about the billboards. Obviously there is nothing offensive about the billboards. Any suggestion to that effect is so absurd that the only reasonable response is to laugh.
Rather than engaging with the voices of intolerance, i will simply affirm my strong support for the project. To that end i donated a little money the Boulder Atheists who are sponsoring the billboards. There is a “Make a Donation” button on their web site where you too can contribute to this worthy cause. Maybe if they get enough we can have more than just eleven billboards.
I watched the third presidential debate last night. Overall, I would say that not much new ground was covered. However, there was one moment that I thought was quite telling. At one point John McCain suggested that school vouchers are the solution to all our education woes. Barack Obama replied, “I disagree with him on this, because the data doesn’t show that it actually solves the problem”.
And that, my friends, exemplifies why I will be voting for Barack Obama. I think that of the two Obama is much more likely to search out relevant data and let it inform his decisions.
The radical right may believe that unregulated markets are the solution to everything, and the hard left may believe that capitalism is the root of most of our ills. Frankly, I don’t care what anybody thinks if they have derived it from the first principles of their ideology. If you don’t have evidence to support your plans I am pretty damn sure that they are wrong. Most likely, badly wrong.
Outcomes are the only thing that matter. I want a government that is more interested in implementing policies that will achieve the outcomes we all want – economic prosperity, physical security, reduced poverty, etc. – than ones their ideologically imprisoned “base” would approve of.
This is where the new Progressive movement could enter the political arena for real. What we need are a new set of politicians who are focused on addressing the issues that actually affect our country. People who want to restart our recently stalled progress. Leaders who will search out the relevant data and use it to construct plans that have real chances of succeeding. Or, at the very least, not our waste time and money on ones completely doomed to failure. We need a new ideology of evidence based governance. And we need it now.
On a related note, the Science Debate 2008 is quite interesting. I highly recommend reading both the candidates’ responses.
BarCamp Boulder is on. It will be held October 17th and 18th (2008) at the TechStars bunker in downtown Boulder. The last one was great and I expect this one will be even better.
Reasons you should come:
- you like meeting smart and interesting people
- you are passionate about something that the rest of us should know about
- you are interested in learning new things
- you want to learn about a specific topic1
- you want to help bolster the technology community in Boulder
If any, or all, of those reasons fit, you should definitely come. You will not be disappointed. Go put you name on the list of attendees. Now. I look forward to seeing you there.
Happy Birthday Elliot! Elliot is five today. He is getting to be a very big boy now.
Last Saturday I took him to Elitch Gardens. We spent a great six hours playing. You cannot go wrong with a day of sugar, video games and rides. He is big enough to ride quite a few rides there. A few of them were even entertaining for me. His favorite ride was shipwreck falls. Getting wet has some sort of unnatural attraction for him.
This morning we started with presents. After everyone was ready for school he donned his wrist, elbow and knee pads and played with his new skate board for a few minutes. He seemed to enjoy it until he crashed into some the patio furniture. Fortunately, no real damage was done to either him or the furniture.
This evening we had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory with our friends Morgan, Amy, Mason and Madeleine. The picture above is Elliot blowing out the candle the wait staff at the restaurant put in his ice cream.
On my walk back to the office from lunch today I noticed the there was a small Novo Coffee sign in the window of the warehouse across the street. The name was familiar but I couldn’t quite place it at the time1. Given that the coffee I had at work was getting a bit stale I decided that it was worth investigating
I went in the open door and there before my eyes was a small batch coffee roaster. Inside I meet two very nice gentlemen, Pat and Herb, who were very happy to help me. Pat showed me around the operation, and after a bit of discussion about the sort of coffees I like suggested the San Rafael. So I bought a pound and promptly went back to the office and brewed a pot using my new kit.
It is an excellent coffee. I think it might be a bit more interesting if it were roasted a bit darker2, but it is delicious none the less. I really like that there is an excellent coffee roaster just a block from my office. I may never have to endure stale coffee again.
Happy third birthday Audrey! We had a great day today. First, we got up late – well, I did anyway, and Elliot and Audrey played together nicely while I caught a few extra Zs – and opened presents. The red headed Cabbage Patch doll is the favorite as of this evening, but the Lego were a close second.
Then we went to A Taste of Colorado where we ate good food and rode fun rides. Audrey was quite adventurous with rides today. She particularly likes the ones she can go on by her herself. Now that she is three I guess parents just weigh her down.
Of course, this evening we had cake and sang Happy Birthday to Audrey. Audrey really likes to be sung to. I have rarely see such a big grin as the one we got during our rendition of Happy Birthday. She was very proud of being able to blow out the candles, as you can see below. At bed time, she even claimed that the candles where her favorite thing today.
The Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash is tonight and I will be there. Cat and I are even on the official RSVP list (which means we get free drinks). This is my only concession to the convention but any gathering of “beer-swigin’” bloggers has to be fun. If you are going too let me know and I will keep an eye out for you.
I started my new gig, at brightkite, today. I am super stoked to be working with the excellent crew there.
I realized that I need some new music, though. I have quite a lot of music that I associate strongly with particular events, workplaces, teams and even books1. My tastes range from pop with a decent beat, to dub, to pretty much anything involving a piano. For example, recently have been listening to Silversun Pickups (thanks to Donnie), Ben Folds, Burial, and Pitch Black. But most of my music library is already saturated with emotion. I need some new music.
So I am ask you, my readers, for some suggestions of some new music I can associate with my new gig. Point me at some your favorite music.
At the pool the other day Audrey slipped off a ledge she was standing on and fell into the deep water. Her head went under water for maybe ten seconds before I was able to get to her. No sooner does she catch her breath than she says “You were going to let me dead1”, in her most accusing and disappointed voice.
If she can come up with that at this age I am a bit afraid of what she will be saying in a couple of years.
Over the week-end I made some yogurt and boy am I glad I did.
It was easily the best yogurt I have ever had. It was particularly
good with peaches. That was tonight’s dessert, doesn’t it look
yummy?
In case you are wondering, I used a combination of these
recipes. I did not follow either exactly. I
get the feeling that is rather difficult to actually mess up yogurt.
