Adieu, polar ice

Apparently, there's a 50-50 chance that all the sea ice at the North Pole will melt by the end of this summer.

On the upside, I can finally fulfill my dream of paddleboating from Alaska to Norway.

Unity

Moderation

Interesting graph from the Wall Street Journal:


Again, most of the fundamentals of the race favor Obama. The economy is weak on the Republicans' watch, Bush is highly unpopular, the Republicans have held the White House for two terms, there's an unpopular war going on, etc. But McCain is widely perceived as far more moderate than Obama. I'm curious to what extent this will change between now and November.

It's the frakin' ship of lights

Non-nerds needn't read this post. Actually, if you aren't a nerd, why are you reading my blog at all?

If you, like me, are still stumped over the implications of the "Galactica" mid-season finale, this thoughtful post reminds us that the original 1978 "Galactica" series may hold the key.

Gender math

Oops. The Colorado delegation to the Democratic convention has one extra male. They'll need to swap one at-large male delegate with a female at-large alternate.

More on the Obama/Clinton party split

I keep hearing debates about what exactly the Clinton/Obama split in the Democratic Party means. Yes, they're close on policy issues, but the split is occasionally framed as a larger division over party strategy, in which the Clinton team includes the Carville/Emanuel strategic types (who target a few key states and flood them with money) and the Obama team is aligned with the Howard Dean 50-state folks.

Here's some more evidence on that split: Obama has decided to campaign separately from the Colorado Coordinated Campaign. This seems to have pissed off some party regulars, like the Clinton-backing Paul Sandoval, a north Denver restaurateur and pretty significant local party leader. I don't see this as a huge story -- there's always tension between a presidential campaign and the coordinated campaign, and the Post story linked to above correctly notes that it's of a piece with Obama's decision to reject public financing. That is, he's doing pretty well on his own.

But some context is provided by a commenter at squarestate.net:

I certainly can't speak for Mr. Sandoval, but his argument might make sense if you equated Clinton with the older insider Party structure and saw Obama's team as the new interlopers.

Then the argument becomes, "Sure, you did it with all these outsiders, but then don't expect the Party regulars to turn the keys of the machine over to you."

It would still be a deeply flawed argument that ignores the full range of support that Obama enjoys, but I can see how someone might try and make it.

Talking White

Ralph Nader was already looking like a pretty marginal character in this year's presidential election, and his latest comments should only marginalize him further:

"There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American," Nader said. "Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards."

[Emphasis added.]

Are we at the point yet where the harm Nader has done to our country outweighs the good he has done (i.e.: seatbelts)? Probably not. But still...