It's pretty difficult to find a poll by a reliable polling firm on the second round of Afghan elections on November 7, so let's try this unscientific poll:
If an election were held today, who of the following would you choose as President of Afghanistan:
While travelling, I saw this attack ad of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) by the German Socialist Party (SPD) :
The ad suggests that "Financial Sharks" want to vote for the FDP in the upcoming European Parliament elections. The pictured financial shark seems very happy and friendly. I therefore encourage all European citizens registered in Germany to vote for the FDP on June 6.
In 788 words, Paul Krugman sums up the global policy trap surrounding food. It's not funny or youtube, but it is insightful. He goes from the food crisis to emerging economies to oil prices to bad weather to biofuel to political mis-management.
Here's the beginning of Krugman's NY Times Op-ed 7Apr2008, "Grains Gone Wild":
For me at least, this 40 minute video is a pretty remarkable thing. Barack Obama speaking to a church charity about the role of faith in progressive society. He speaks as a Christian, but his words are thoughtful, attentive, tolerant, complicated. Even as an atheist I am persuaded and almost moved.
I would vote for Clinton for the Dems; she strikes me as having less potential for greatness, but more potential for competence.
For the Republicans, i guess i would want McCain as pres because he is the least crazy, but i would want Huckabee as the candidate because he would be easiest for the Dems to beat.
Like Herbert, many scientists and engineers also report heightened states of creativity while using LSD.
"We have been deeply touched by our experiences with psychedelics and it is hard that there is not a single legal study with LSD given to humans anywhere in the world," said Doblin. "We need to bring what is underground and illegal back into a legal context."
The online community around Lux is a pretty diverse group. One member has been living in Nairobi, Kenya for the past 2 years. He recently made a detailed post in the forums describing the situation there. It's a fascinating read, here's a snippet:
Just like the world's largest slum (in terms of population per square meter [yes, that is correct. Over one million people in two square kilometers]), Kibari, "doesn't exist" according to the government. It's just a big open air market. Because Kenya doesn't have any slums, you know. Not even Mathare (another "not a slum") where the murder rate per day is comparable to Oakland CA's per /week/...in a space just over a square kilometer.
This video does a great job of showing how bike lanes that share roadspace with car traffic on busy streets suck. It's entitled The Case for Separated Bike Lanes and was created by StreetFilms, an NYC group dedicated to making their urban spaces more livable.
Vancouver could use this advice in a number of places. I was biking in the shared bike lanes along Pender and Richards coming home today, and in both cases it was an exercise in avoiding the buses that are making stops along those same streets. It's dangerous and not very fun. Bring on the separated lanes!