There's got to be a way to prosecute this...

"Hackers Assault Epilepsy Patients Via Computer," from Wired.  I mean, crashing someone's hard drive is a huge pain in the ass, but if you're actually physically hurting people... I mean, that's got to demand assault charges, right?

Andreessen on Obama

Mark Andreessen is one of the founders of Netscape and a prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneur.  Last year, before the election moved into full-steam and back when Barack Obama was still just a long shot freshman senator from Illinois, Andreessen had the chance to sit down with a couple friends and meet Barack Obama for an hour and a half.  You can read his full description in his blog.  

I've excerpted his conclusion here because it encapsulates much of my own impression of Obama, including a lot of what I think gets passed over in the mainstream focus of popular campaigning:

What's the picture that emerges from these four impressions?

Smart, normal, curious, not radical, and post-Boomer.

If you were asking me to write a capsule description of what I would look for in the next President of the United States, that would be it.

Having met him and then having watched him for the last 12 months run one of the best-executed and cleanest major presidential campaigns in recent memory, I have no doubt that Senator Obama has the judgment, bearing, intellect, and high ethical standards to be an outstanding president -- completely aside from the movement that has formed around him, and in complete contradition to the silly assertions by both the Clinton and McCain campaigns that he's somehow not ready.

Before I close, let me share two specific things he said at the time -- early 2007 -- on the topic of whether he's ready.

We asked him directly, how concerned should we be that you haven't had meaningful experience as an executive -- as a manager and leader of people?

He said, watch how I run my campaign -- you'll see my leadership skills in action.

At the time, I wasn't sure what to make of his answer -- political campaigns are often very messy and chaotic, with a lot of turnover and flux; what conclusions could we possibly draw from one of those?

Well, as any political expert will tell you, it turns out that the Obama campaign has been one of the best organized and executed presidential campaigns in memory. Even Obama's opponents concede that his campaign has been disciplined, methodical, and effective across the full spectrum of activities required to win -- and with a minimum of the negative campaigning and attack ads that normally characterize a race like this, and with almost no staff turnover. By almost any measure, the Obama campaign has simply out-executed both the Clinton and McCain campaigns.

This speaks well to the Senator's ability to run a campaign, but speaks even more to his ability to recruit and manage a top-notch group of campaign professionals and volunteers -- another key leadership characteristic. When you compare this to the awe-inspiring discord, infighting, and staff turnover within both the Clinton and McCain campaigns up to this point -- well, let's just say it's a very interesting data point.

We then asked, well, what about foreign policy -- should we be concerned that you just don't have much experience there?

He said, directly, two things.

First, he said, I'm on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where I serve with a number of Senators who are widely regarded as leading experts on foreign policy -- and I can tell you that I know as much about foreign policy at this point as most of them.

Being a fan of blunt answers, I liked that one.

But then he made what I think is the really good point.

He said -- and I'm going to paraphrase a little here: think about who I am -- my father was Kenyan; I have close relatives in a small rural village in Kenya to this day; and I spent several years of my childhood living in Jakarta, Indonesia. Think about what it's going to mean in many parts of the world -- parts of the world that we really care about -- when I show up as the President of the United States. I'll be fundamentally changing the world's perception of what the United States is all about.

He's got my vote.

Thanks to Cardiff for the link to this post. 

Why Cities Are Our Future...

This article on CNN.com discusses the growth of cities and urban populations around the world.  

The Numbers:

- "UN-Habitat says that a staggering 95 percent of the expected global population growth we will see over the next 2 decades will be absorbed by cities in the developing world... What that means is by 2030 another 2 billion people from the developing world will be living in cities (only 100 million from the developed world meanwhile will be doing the same). Currently 75 percent of world's poorest people -- 1 billion -- live in cities."

- "Already, 75 percent of the world's 21 mega-cities are based in the developing world, and by some estimates, 27 of the 33 mega-cities expected to exist by 2015 will be in developing countries."

- "Cities have always traditionally been the centers of the world's wealth, and the World Bank says that as much as 80 percent of the future economic growth of the developing world will come from its cities."

- "In the next 30 years, China alone will have around 752 million urbanites, all needing to get around town. Currently, less than 1 percent of Chinese own a car... If each of those 752 million city dwellers copied the transportation habits of your average resident of San Francisco in 1990, the actions of that one country would result in 1 billion additional tons of carbon emissions a year -- the same amount that was released worldwide by all road transport in 1998."

The Other Side Of The Story

Usually, the bureaucracy of the Indian government is something to laugh about, or -- if youare unfortunate enough to need something from them -- to cry about.  This article in the Economist actually made me feel sorry for the bureaucrats who make up the Indian Administrative Service.  The IAS is probably a cushy job for most of its officers.  They've got power, prestige and plenty of chances to squirrel away money from whoever needs a favor.  But if you really wanted to do your job well, I couldn't think of a worse place to work than the Indian government. 

I'm sure this sympathetic feeling will last until the next time I have to go to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office for an extension of my visa... and not one second longer.

An Oldie, But A Goodie

Loved this article when I read it way back in 'aught one.   Describes Cecil Balmond, engineer of choice to starchitects from Rem Koolhaas to Philip Johnson as he blurs the line between structural engineering and design.  Very cool read, particularly if you tend to think (as I do) that the beauty of architecture is in the melding of structural science and artistic creativity. 

This Is Pretty Funny...

"When your main campaign theme is foreign policy experience, and that experience is persuasively refuted by a comedian, it's time to find a new theme."  

For anyone who doubts the massive experience imbued on Hillary Clinton during her time as First Lady, here's an entertaining piece of evidence that she wasn't exactly in the trenches. 

In Dubai, This Sort of Thing Is Completely Normal

NYTimes.com article about Rem Koolhaas' plan to build a slice of lower manhattan on a man made island off the Dubai coast. Amazing. 1.5 BILLION square feet of development. A 44-story spherical tower... and it's not even remotely the most ambitious development in the city. Seriously, I woke up this morning in a house built on a frond of the world's biggest palm tree. On the way in form the airport, we passed the world's tallest building. And I'm shooting for the skiing trifecta of water, snow and sand before the weekend is over. I have no idea how I feel about all this yet.