Tonight I was faced with this scene at a party in Indianapolis for Monster Energy drink and I figure it is a good way to tell if you are a geek. If you first impulse is to ask the girls for help with your Ubuntu install, you are probably a geek. If you start wondering about what cool iPhone apps they use, you are probably a geek. If you want to ask them where the best places to find wifi in Paris are, you are probably a geek. If you want to invite them to a Facebook party you are probably a geek. If you ask them what they think of Android you are probably a geek.
- Robert Scoble
from email
If you know for a fact the girls don't care at all about you and are only there as paid advertisements, AND you still don't care and want to gawk and hang out and get photos with them anyway...you might be a geek.
- Josh Haley
You guys are a bunch of pathetic losers. Robert did you ask them what their astrological sign was? and if you did you are a geek who's desperate :)
- Jeunelle Foster
If you immediately turn to your iPhone and write about it on FriendFeed you are a geek
- Jesse Stay
I'm pretty sure I am still a geek, but there is no way any of those questions come to mind when I see this picture. And I think if those questions come to anyone's mind here, it might be time for geek-rehab.
- Bill Grant
Pogmohin: I talked with them for a while. Nice people but didn't know what Android was so I moved on.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
This post is just a cover story for why does Robert have this picture, anyway?
- Jason Wehmhoener
So is "What do you think of Android?" the new Turning test?
- Micah Wittman
thinking you can pick up said girls by telling them you wrote an iphone app and expecting them to get excited about it then you're a geek.
- evablue
Yeah.. I am from FHM mag.. Want to make the big time baby.. Now can the girl at the rear just reach around to the one at the front more...click .. front page Roberts Screen Saver..
- Pogmohoin
The girl at the right said her name was Ashley. Actually she said she was "Smashley." love that.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Ashley owes me money and I better not run into her or her face would be smashley
- Jeunelle Foster
Bill: yup. I picked up on the iPod very quickly at the party. I am hoping Ashley sends me her play list!
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
@Micah -- Me: "No, that's Mandroid. He stayed home. Wasn't cool enough. Android is...(way short explanation)"
- Dennis Jernberg
If you take a picture of three beautiful girls, post it on FF, and your first inclination is to write a caption that includes the words Ubuntu, iphone Apps and Android - OR if you comment on such a post... You are definitely a geek.
- Rob Rose
By the way none of the three had been to Europe so they couldn't help me with good places to get wifi for LeWeb.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
If you help them sign up for Facebook, FriendFeed, and Twitter, you're a geek.
- imabonehead
Well they don't look like they know how to boil rice
- Jeunelle Foster
Been to Europe?? Man did they say the best thing that come out of Europe was "The Final Countdown" from their Daddy's "86 with a Bullet" tape!! http://www.youtube.com/watch...
- Pogmohoin
This scene was the geek's dream while posting this. :)
- Bundit
imabonehead: actually they are already on Facebook. Which says something about how mainstream Facebook has gotten.
- Robert Scoble
All the Facebook friends in my family (except for my brother) are definitely nongeeks.
- Dennis Jernberg
Well I know I'm a geek. When someone like me, who spends a lot of time helping a sexy geek like Marina Orlova of http://hotforwords.com because she speaks geek and is enjoyable to work with. I might even venture to say she's a bit of a computer nerd. When Marina wakes up the first thing she does is check her email. When she gets ready for bed she can be found tweeting before she retires...
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- Captain Jack
Captain Jack: she sounds cool. What apps does she have on her iPhone?
- Robert Scoble
Were they impressed by the size of your lens, Robert?
- Vezquex: God of FF
Raphael: I didn't have that with me tonight. Was going low key. :-)
- Robert Scoble
If Robert had taken that shot with is 600mm, he would have had to have been 3 blocks away and you would be able to see the the flecks of color in their eyes :) You are looking at their eyes right?? -- My first thought was well, they can't be geeks as everyone knows true Geeks drink Red Bull not Monster :P Monster isn't all bad, they are big supporters of Surfrider and International Surfing day ----> Surfing Geek
- Luke Kilpatrick
If you're a geek, why are you asking someone else for help with your Ubuntu installation? Shouldn't you figuring that out yourself? Turn in your geek card, now.
- Andy Bakun
Yeah, they'd have to ask you to help with their Ubuntu installation. Except if they don't know what Android is, they probably haven't heard of Ubuntu either.
- Dennis Jernberg
"Well, hello there, sexy ladies! Would you like to come up to my place and read my @scobleizer feed? Hmm?" -bow-chicka-wow-wow-
- Kevin Leroux
wow. I couldn't even make out what was that thing in the BG. I noticed the additional thumb/thigh in front -so that makes me a photo geek??
- jomarhilario
Oh my! Now I'm sure I'm not a geek! Hahaha they are beautiful as hell!
- Rafael
if you find this picture of these attractive women on this page you are probably a geek...even if you don't read every single comment...including this one.
- Lee Sachs
Some of us geeks know what we're doing with women.
- Tyler Hurst
Oh, how gorgeous. You've got to love that Ipod design.
- James Kuypers
I can tell the way the Hottie on da Right is looking at me that she really likes ME a lot!!!
- Billy Warhol
@James I hereby award you the true geek award for your spotting of the iPod in this picture. =P (Special mention to the others who said MP3 player) - Silver iPod Nano I would think.
- Travis Koger
Really lol Scoble maybe u had been having 2 much fun @ the racetrack & geeks does attract some attractive wolla
- polou/indigo_bow
Funny old world three attractive women in a fun pose at a launch party and it creates enormous interest? Funny how things never really change in human habits, geek yep that's me but this article made me smile a lot, keep snapping away Robert.
- Ian Wright
If you are writing a disclaimer on a picture, you took at a party, because you don't want to be locked out of the house by your wife, you are a SMART geek:)
- Maryam Scoble
from iPhone
Heh, love that Maryam commented on this. I miss her and my two buddies. I'm just wondering why TechCrunch doesn't have parties like Monster drinks! ;-)
- Robert Scoble
Robert, you'll just have to bring a case or two of Monster to your next TC visit and see what happens.... just make sure the cam is on.
- Jay Cuthrell
Jeez, I must not be geekish at all — *my* first thoughts are all carnal.
- Hieronymus Murphy
Only qx...which was your first impulse? I pray for your sake it was to throw down camera & decide where u were going to be in Blonde sandwich. :-)
- Brenda Rothaupt
I finely tuned sense of apathy can serve you well when faced with hundreds of stress monkeys.
- Moved to Facebook
from fftogo
I've tried the finely tuned sense of apathy. I'm very jealous of people who have it. I'm just one of those who let too many other people affect me.
- Helen Sventitsky
My apathy notes your jealousy and still wishes you well ;)
- Moved to Facebook
from IM
3rd place -- "In the Illusion of Sex, two faces are perceived as male and female. However, both faces are actually versions of the same androgynous face. One face was created by increasing the contrast of the androgynous face, while the other face was created by decreasing the contrast. The face with more contrast is perceived as female, while the face with less contrast is perceived as male. The Illusion of Sex demonstrates that contrast is an important cue for perceiving the sex of a face, with greater contrast appearing feminine, and lesser contrast appearing masculine."
- Cee Bee
from Bookmarklet
In other words, we've been trained that people wearing makeup are usually women.
- Ken Sheppardson
These are *pictures* of incomplete faces, these are not faces. Photographic techniques are irrelevant to the recognition of real faces. It isn't photographic contrast, but shape that is relevant. Manipulation of contrast in a picture manipulates the perception of shape.
- Peter
it's odd that they tell me how I perceive both faces
- Richard Lawler
Interesting. I used to print photos for a fashion photographer. Hundreds of them. He always had me use high contrast paper and over expose the faces. He told me that women liked it that way because it showed fewer lines and blemishes, but this shows me that there was actually another reason behind why he liked them that way.
- Robert Scoble
Peter, that's an interesting point, but I don't see so much difference in the shape of the two. I wonder could it be some of both? The contrast subtly affecting shape, and the "lightness" being more like what we perceive as the female gender? In Japan, there's a large market for "whitening" makeup products, so that made me think...
- Rick Cogley
i believe this image was related or resulted from a study about people with a rare condition known as face blindness, where they're unable to recognize or distinguish faces. the study was done by richard b russell, who is a harvard post-doctoral researcher, so i would think he's fairly credible with regard to constraints or results set forth in his findings. as far as them telling how...
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- Cee Bee
@Ken lol well said! @cee bee thanks for this its fascinating!
- Rahul Deodhar
"Lie To Me" had an interesting sequence about facial muscles as they relate to gender
- randulo
That's BS, you can't say how someone else would perceive something before you show it to them, and there's a lot more that goes into facial recognition than just contrast.
- Richard Lawler
Or given the small space within the profile pics - this is very critical understanding of our visual interpretation skills
- Rahul Deodhar
richard, what i'm saying is that the first paragraph above is simply an explanation of probable findings that resulted from testing people who weren't told of such things. for instance, if various photos of people were presented in a blind test in random order with the two above included in that bunch, i think most people would probably be compelled to claim gender in accordance to that explanation.
- Cee Bee
I disagree, and without detailed information on how it was tested, I don't accept out of hand their findings, but everything else about the example relies on that.
- Richard Lawler
IMO this works. I looked at the pictures and could see what they did there, but still could sense the effect in question. Then I read the first comment and felt vindicated.
- Karl Knechtel
now that I know the images are the same, I notice less of a difference. but at first glance, the one on the left seems more feminine - but not by much. still it's fascinating.
- tiffany
Another thing I noticed. Lip-to-face contrast in the more contrasty one, ostentatiously the "male" one, is lower, so it appears to not be wearing lipstick. Perhaps another gender indicator.
- Rick Cogley
Right, Rick. Foundation lightens the overall face, lipstick darkens the lips, eye liner and eye shadow darkens the eyes, and you get a higher contrast version of the same face. People are trained that there's a high correlation between makeup and gender, so voila... given two otherwise androgynous faces, they'll perceive a higher contrast face to be female. I'd like to see if this finding holds across cultures where makeup isn't prevalent.
- Ken Sheppardson
"In other words, we've been trained that people wearing makeup are usually women. - Ken Sheppardson" <- right on spot :D
- minus-one
they both look like women to me, in fact they look like the same person; not very subtle
- Kathryn Martyn
It seems that a "softer" face is considered feminine and a "harder" face is masculine? Interesting.
- CAJ, somewhere else
I hope she'll come here and give you her theories. She graduated at the top of her class from UC Berkeley, by the way. Knows her stuff and told me she's been arguing Lost with people all day long and thinking about it.
- Robert Scoble
She's being stubborn and isn't going to post them here. She wants to blog her thoughts first. Damn, did Arrington get to her? Heheh.
- Robert Scoble
The whole battle of two gods thing really confused the hell out of me.
- Mitch
Mitch: good vs. evil. For life to get to the next level we must join good vs. evil and stop fighting with each other. If we don't, we'll all die. So, the fun next season will be to see if all opposing forces learn to get along, or if the whole thing ends in a great tragedy. I vote that they all get along. The couple on the beach last night foreshadowed that.
- Robert Scoble
The thing that throws you off is both sides have good and evil in them. Lost's gods are complex, not simple like our mythological gods.
- Robert Scoble
That's basically @maryamie's theory, anyway. Me? It drove me to crack open a bottle of wine. Heheh.
- Robert Scoble
My wife is a History major - it's just as fun on stuff like this
- Jesse Stay
side note - i've been wondering if the light flashes coincide with the twitter outages?
- Allen Stern
The concept of dualistically natured gods was actually pretty common throughout most of human culture. It's what makes Greek and Roman mythology so interesting.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Allen: now that you mention it, yes they do! By the way, have you gotten my business cards all scanned? Or can you "blame Scoble" for slipping your launch date?
- Robert Scoble
Oh Lord, Scobles: I hope you're wrong on that theory. Will Rodney King make a cameo "why can't we all just get along?" appearance? Way too sappy for me! :)
- Craig Eddy
Craig: that scene on the beach last night was pretty close to that, wasn't it?
- Robert Scoble
Yes, it sure was. And there was something about the question Bernard asked Juliette too...
- Craig Eddy
Lol - I was just about to email you, your order will be ready just when we agreed :)
- Allen Stern
English was a second language for my wife but she is much gooder at it than me.
- Andrew Leyden
I bet we'll find out the other one is Jacob's brother. It seems LOST is a string of stories about duality. Good vs. Evil and Science vs. Religion as the two main struggles.
- Andrew Smith
What I also think is interesting is the story Two Brothers by Hans Christian Andersen. http://hca.gilead.org.il/two_bro... It specifically mentions the biblical Jacob and refers to them as two brothers Ørsted. If you look up Hans Christian Ørsted http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... you find his life's studies revolved around electromagnetism. Coincidence? hmmm
- Andrew Smith
Wait I have a degree in English but don't get LOST 50% of the time (though i do like it). This is why it's my denial degree. :)
- Steve C
Its way cool to be doing something both financially and environmentally responsible! And, its quite a geeky cool car, in a silent sort of way :)
- jcunwired
jcunwired: actually financially there's almost nothing worse you could do than buy a new car. They depreciate so quickly. Environmentally responsible? Maybe. I bought it to prepare for higher gas prices that will come after the economy recovers.
- Robert Scoble
When I got home @maryamie asked me "did you know it is Dave Winer's birthday tomorrow?" yes! Facebook told her. Microsoft told me. Happy birthday Dave!
*shrug* To me, it just cheapens the thought to a certain degree. I mean, sure, I do wish Dave a happy birthday (Srsly!)...but what does that mean, to him or to me? We've exchanged maybe 10 emails in 10 years, and I read his blog. (again: I don't mean this in a negative way, and I do sincerely hope you have a happy one, Dave!)
- Ken Kennedy
And Scoble told me! the circle is complete. Ready phasers
- Bwana ☠
And to be clear, that wasn't a jab at you saying Happy Birthday to Dave, Robert; sorry if it came out that way. I've been thinking about that whole cheapening thing since I watched a bunch of bdays flow through FB a few weeks back. This just reminded me. It's not a unequivocally bad thing...I just think it's one of the many things SN has affected. Makes the casual assertion less meaningful, even though we tend to think of it the same way.
- Ken Kennedy
Happy Birthday Dave, from me and the guy above who made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
- jcunwired
If you think SXSW has the best parties you have never been to an Iranian Nowruz feast. I am very blessed to have married into the Iranian community. Hope the new year is a good one for everyone here!
Devlin: nope, but if it is better than a nowruz feast it must be pretty freaking awesome.
- Robert Scoble
I once lived in Iran during the cultural revolution(father US govt employee) and have since befriended many Persians(many are in Irvine,Ca). They DO know how to party indeed! On a sad note: one of the Iranian bloggers arrested recently died in Tehran http://jameskarlbuck.com/... . Helps us really value the right to free speech and why it must be upheld.
- Phillip
Devlin, Thailand's Water Festival is even bigger :-P
- Jesse Stay
I don't care if you fake follow me. I don't define myself by who follows me, but I define myself by who +I+ follow! I follow smart people who teach me things and put interesting stuff in my view. If you stop, or prove to be a jerk or a troll, then I'll just unsubscribe.
All I can say to that is, you better enjoy a lot of good German brews while you're there. It's non-sequitor, and that is what you should expect from me.
- Pete Delucchi
Wait. Isn't Robert Scoble just Alex Scoble's older brother?
- Akiva Moskovitz
Pete, the correct spelling is "Mississippi." And Robert, "The Metro" and "Take My Breath Away" are really good songs. And I think you'd agree that the content that you obtain from your subscribees is more important than your subscribee count. It's a content game, not a numbers game.
- Ontario Emperor
from fftogo
Akiva: yup, Alex is my younger brother. You can't really blame him for how he is. I used to beat him up. Of course, he gave me my issues with authority. He told mom. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Pete: Rocky already found a bar that has hundreds of beers. I have a feeling we'll be seen there once or twice between now and Sunday.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, he seems to be doing all right so far!
- Akiva Moskovitz
Great example of being quality-centered instead of market-centered... do what you love and a market will find you...
- Justin Long
@Akiva, yeah, robert scoble uses his last name to get by on alex's gig.
- Morgan Warstler
Akiva- You are the man...that's the funniest stuff I've seen since the whole Korn of the Blog thing.
- Alex Scoble
@Pete - I just want you to know that your non sequitur above ended up inspiring dozens of non sequiturs on FriendFeed this evening. I hope you're Melvin about that.
- Ontario Emperor
from fftogo
That's one of the many things I like about FriendFeed: how many people follow you isn't displayed at the top level. I hope that doesn't change. I think a lot of people on Twitter (and other social networks) only obsess over their followers/friends just because everyone else can see it. I also think that's why a lot of people don't like FriendFeed... you've got to give substance to get substance.
- Paul Reynolds
@Ontario I've stopped shaking my fist, just so you know.
- Pete Delucchi
Agreed - I don't think I'll ever "fake follow". I'd rather just unsubscribe - those I follow I try to pay attention to.
- Jesse Stay
How does one 'fake follow' a person? Is it hard? Is it fun? Can I do it?
- Michael Moran
I agree with you Robert as I don't see any valid reason for me as an individual to fake follow anyone!
- Joe Dawson
Yeah @robert, how or whats "fake follow" ?
- Arjun
Agree on this, though I think from a feature perspective it's a smart one!
- Vinodh Nandakumar
NEW (February 25): Of course two weeks ago I started auto following again. Why? Cause Direct Messaging on Twitter is broken. But here on friendfeed I have a different philosophy. I am using lists to follow specific people and segregate those out from other people. So I can keep the geeks who talk tech separate from my brother, for instance.
- Robert Scoble
That said, I assume everyone is smart until they prove otherwise. :-)
- Robert Scoble
i just wish people would stop talking about following in general :P
- Terry O'Fee
This would have more credibility now Robert if you protested the capping of manual follows at 2000 until you get followers of that number and can move on now. You got to autofollow with abandon; today normal people are capped on manual follows. Unfair.
- Prokofy Neva
Holy hell, this thread is 6 months old!
- coldbrew
I would agree with Garin, followers/following is not important, but discussion is. BTW, Loic is very good a starting this type of arguments (must be his French side).
- Jeremy Chone
This level of necrophilia is just gross dude. Internet threads are not fine cheeses.
- Matthew DeVries
dont worry, matt. there's about five or six conversations of the same discussion now.
- Terry O'Fee
I feel like I should invite friends over and serve wines with threads like this "tonight, we'll be sampling a 2003 SA thread about iPods, a 2007 flickr thread about EXIF data, and something really special a 1994 ISCA BBS thread about where the clitoris is"
- Matthew DeVries
lol - I really enjoy your posts and convo - I learn many things - and thanks for the laughs too : )
- Mark Harai
I'd respond to this thread but necro-posting creates zombie threads and zombie threads eat Brrraaaiiinnnnsss! :P
- MarkCarras
Robert you have alot to teach and you seem teachable also-sign of a good journalist.
- earlewallace
Break out your hand sanitizer. I've already seen a ton of people coughing and hacking on the show floor.
- Sharon Barclay
from twhirl
I am glad I gave you that hand sanitizers. Glad you made it safe and sound. I can't believe the bus broke down. At least you are all safe! See you tomorrow goofy.
- Maryam Scoble
Please use real soap as well. Hand sanitizers cannot stop all the germs.
- Bwana ☠
Doesn't it qualify as middle of nowhere?
- Amit Morson
We had an even worse experience a few years ago. A/C died after 30 mins from LA to Laughlin. The second bus had the same problem somewhere after Barstow, literally in the middle of nowhere. Mojave is not a pleasant place in August in a bus without A/C.
- Tapio Kulmala
Old school Fail. Perhaps it needs a reboot.
- Martha
That'd be great. A bunch of people sitting around, clicking the keys of their laptops in utter silence. Great TV!
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
quotes from the kitchen scene: "it's your turn to make the bacon." "I MADE THE BACON YESTERDAY! IT'S YOUR TURN!" "who ate all the chocolate?" "this coffee pot is subpar. did you read my post evaluating the latest models?"
- Marie is organized.
Marie wouldn't they be tweeting each other instead of actually speaking? The producers could put the Twitter feed under the video. No need for Closed Captioning!
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
I did vote for Obama. I have a lot of hope for what he might be able to do, but my biggest hope is that all the racists of this country will finally leave it. That, and we can start talking about race as Human rather than by heritage. McCain's speech tonight was the best one of his entire campaign.
Those are some solid points, truly that makes wonderful sense, So what did you think of those threats, or the claims there was an assasination attempt being planned?
- Raymond Marr aka Knatchwa
@John To acknowledge differences and factors brought into play by race is not to be racist. To be racist is to believe that one race is inherently superior to another.
- Neal Jansons
I didn't vote for Obama because he's black, John - that's a false assumption (good attempt at logic, though). A vote for anybody other than him would have landed McCain in the white house - and the neo-cons will *NEVER* get my support. EVER. Oh, and you might know that I'm a registered Republican - so stick that in your pipe and smoke it. :)
- l0ckergn0me
Because McCain could be himself and not play to the Right. That was his biggest mistake. He should have played to the center, he could have pulled in a lot more votes IMO. There was way too many disenfranchised R's out there who had had it with the Party.
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
This was my first vote ever for a Democratic Presidential candidate. I'm very proud of the outcome. The Republican party messed up big time this time. Obama was the most conservative candidate of the two.
- Jesse Stay
Ok - just checking (i'm not the judge of such things anyway..)
- John Foss
Love you, John. Wish "you" had run in the election and not the guy grabbed by the dark side, Your speech tonight was great and a reflection of what I think is your real self - so, please help to rebuild your party - and the country - and prove that you are the Patriot I believed in way back in 2000.
- David HC Soul
@thepuck - racism can be more subtle than thinking you are superior. If you differentiate and think you are of a different group, the seed is planted.
- John Foss
better yet, let's focus on more important differences than skin color.
- John LeMasney
I think you're a little out of touch, l0ckergn0me.
- Trevor Carpenter
different races = different life experiences and imho justice will take that into political account
- Marshall Kirkpatrick
chris posted:“I did vote for Obama. I have a lot of hope for what he might be able to do, but my biggest hope is that all the racists of this country will finally leave it. That, and we can start talking about race as Human rather than by heritage. McCain's speech tonight was the best one of his entire campaign---->I voted for McCain but i realy dont care for him that much..I have no issues with Black vs white,I have no issues with Democrat vs Republican.But i am VERY CONSERVATIVE and vote that way normally
- Edward D Webb
As I've asked before, "Where was THIS McCain throughout the campaign?" This was a more genuine, humble person who finally saw the forest from the trees about our universal struggle, who finally took control of his supporters, and gave a little bit of inspiration and reflection. When the race was finally over, it appears the RNC just released him from captivity and he could finally speak as himself.
- Glenn Batuyong
He tried being the real him back in 2000 and it didn't work out. This time, with old age creeping up, I think he got nervous and listened/relied to much on his advisors who led him astray.
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
The one similarity no one can really say is each has the same blood flowing through their veins, even if on the outside they look different, we as human beans all work the same, it is only on the shallow view of only seeing the outside that is different and basing false assumptions on that.
- Raymond Marr aka Knatchwa
McCain is not a neo-con. The whole invented "neo-con" thing was a stupid attempt to brand Bush and Co. as extreme right even though they passed far more left-leaning legislation and spending than right-leaning. It's a pejorative against conservatives that sounds innocent, just like an Arab calling an Israeli "Zionist." Most of us understand the true meaning when those terms are used.
- Chris Mayer
While McCain is not a neo-con, the term wasn't invented last year. Bush and Co. were neo-cons and the people they alligned themselves with coined themselves that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- PC Easy
from twhirl
I agree. The McCain speech was actually very good.
- Dave
I am from Indiana and didn't vote for Obama but I was glad to see it close all night and didn't mind that he won. When looking back at the Clinton wins I was embarassed for the states below Indiana. They had no problem voting for a white democrat with Clinton but clearly couldn't yet handle a black democrat With Obama. This is just sad.
- gfurry
True story about McCain's speech. Thank god he didn't orate that well during his campaign :)
- David
Thanks, Rocky. I think it's time we conservatives take a long hard look at what has happened to our party, over the last 10 years. We're not better off. We're worse off. I think it's time we get back to the fundamentals of conservatism. I like what I hear Congressman Paul Ryan saying. (possibly a young fresh voice for the GOP?)
- Trevor Carpenter
I think the party needs to rapidly distance itself from the right wing religious, war monger, image that it appears to have blidly stumbled into. Tricky.
- Phill Price
I agree with Phill. I used to be a Republican, but the the far religious right really turned me off to the party. I think fiscal conservatism and a smaller government is a good thing, but I can not stand the injection the fundamentalists morals and religious beliefs into the government. The separation of church and state has become so blurred that it is often hard to find the line....
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- Jeff P. Henderson
@Phill, I don't think the Republican party stumbled into where they are today by accident. It started back with Ronald Regan, who began to embrace Fundamentalist Religious groups in order to win the southern vote. If you look back only a few decades, prior to Regan, Fundamentalist Christians used to be predominantly Democratic.
- Jeff P. Henderson
As I said earlier this week, "fundamentalist Christians" like myself will soon not be welcome in either major party. Then both major parties will pretty much look the same, and the Democratic party will be in control for a long time to come.
- ComicList
Now I will believe :-) Time to wake up the wife who actually could vote in this election... Why do I always stay up late while she sleeps? Shes the citizen...
- Rasmus Lauridsen
This is the first time Virginia has voted for a Democratic President since 1964.
- Karim
My old home state elected the nation's first black governor, Doug Wilder, a Democrat. But the state was stubbornly Republican in presidential races. Now it votes for the first elected black President. Nice.
- Hutch Carpenter
"stubbornly Republican" is putting it mildly. The last time Virginia voted Democrat for President, 44 years ago, interracial marriages were a *felony* in Virginia. The Voting Rights Act didn't *exist.* Today, they've voted the Democratic son of an interracial marriage for President... :-D
- Karim
[Text & Video] Duncan Riley has text of Obama's speech (and video) at the Inquisitr http://inquisitr.com/7363... I can't get Duncan's video to work. Does anyone have a link to the full speech?
- Mitchell Tsai
[Video - part 1 - 1st 6 paragraphs, 2:12, CNN] 'Change has come to 'America' http://www.cnn.com/2008... [after this video, it plays commercial & then continues to part 2]
- Mitchell Tsai
[Video - part 2, paragraphs 7-12, 1:45, CNN] 'Obama pays tribute to McCain' http://www.cnn.com/2008... Ends with "And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady Michelle Obama."
- Mitchell Tsai
Does anyone have video of the last ~50 paragraphs of Obama's speech?
- Mitchell Tsai
[Full Video] Obama Victory Speech: "Change Has Come To America" (VIDEO) [Huffington Post - 11/4/08, 18:11] http://huffingtonpost.com/2008... Thanks to Gregory Lent for this link. It's a nice clear recording, and streams much better than the CNN videos.
- Mitchell Tsai
Everyone called it at 8pm PST, to let the folks in CA who voted at 7:59 think it meant something :)
- Glen Campbell, B.A.
Well, this should teach the GOP not to nominate a RINO
- Robert Hafer
Yes they called it as soon as the polls closed on the Pacific Coast. Actually, one minute later. It was already inevitable but they waited. At 8pm they immediately colored CA-OR-WA Blue and it was clearly decided. So we all get to go to sleep with it decided. A welcome change.
- Dennis E. Hamilton
from twhirl
What are you voting for the other 3 years? ;) Congratulations Robert. There's nothing to life if you're not actually sharing it with someone.
- Douglas Karr
from twhirl
Facebook is too closed. They think they can keep growing by keeping their current user base satisfied with a wide range os apps and external service integration.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
but why should that prevent friendfeed from allowing import of Fb status messages?
- manuscrypts
Facebook is too cluttered. It's gonna become orkut soon.
- Roshni
all the more reason for me to want an integration here..
- manuscrypts
I feed my Facebook Notifications, Facebook Posts, Facebook Friends' Status Updates, and MiniFeed into a private room (since they contain private stuff). Tried the imaginary friends thing, but I don't always check FF each day, so leaving them in a room helps.
- Mitchell Tsai