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CERN launches world’s largest particle collider As SSW mentioned, there was some hysterics that a mistake could cause a mini black hole and end civilization as we know it. But thankfully that did not come to pass – it only made two dots on a CRT screen.

Season opener of Sarah Connor Chronicles – AWESOME! Usual EW major spoilers here.  Fantastic Terminator action in this first episode, where Camaron turns on John. Wrecked more vehicles in one episode than they do in most movies. And the first appearance of a T-1001 – look out!

Primary results: Daniel Squadron defeats incumbant Martin Connor. For someone who has been in office since the ’70’s, and is actually my state senator, I have almost zero knowledge about Connor.  I’ve never met him in person or seen him at public events or anything, and I have met or seen most of my other elected officials at one point or another. But for crying out loud, Squadron’s clipboarding posse was really annoying. They were worse than the canvassers described in the recent issue of the Village Voice. They even had people come up to my apartment twice to ask if I was voting, and that kind of turned me off. But at least he’s trying. The clincher is that Squadron had Chinese on his banners, and Connor didn’t. That might seem to be a small thing, but it’s often the small things that count.

So, Tropical Storm Hannah went up the eastern sea board. We had humidity. And, rain. Lots of rain.

More people watched the RNC than the DNC on tv? Ok, fine, you had the curiosity factor going, since people were still going, “Sarah Who?” about the Palin as VP choice and maybe people were still in Olympics withdrawal with the DNC on tv (but only on PBS and C-Span with much more coverage – I’m not going to wonder how much the FOX/CNN/MSNBC folks really put in it). But, it’s not really cheering me up that more watched the RNC.

So, a few weeks ago, I linked to an article about how science ought to consider issues of ethics. Yeah, well, the point is that the big ass super collider is going to be turned on and maybe the microscopic black holes could suck us alive. Or maybe help us find those missing socks that the black holes keep sucking anyway.

Well, anyway, black holes would probably kill us, not just suck us in.

Yeah, I’m really excited to find my missing socks. Not so excited about the end of the world due to black holes or uncontrolled singularities; pretty unsure if I really want o know how the world began (not if it means causing the world to end – as seen in an episode of “Eureka” – where the experiment to recreate the start of the universe rendered the smart people stupid and almost destroys the universe. oops.)

On Sept. 14, 2008, it’s going to be the Brooklyn Book Festival! I’m going to miss it this year due to my vacation in Chicago, maybe someone else can go and let me know how it goes?

Politics… I ought to stay away from politics. But… I can’t.

In this linked article, “Whatever Happened to Family Values?”, Slate’s Jacob Weisberg raises the excellent point that this isn’t Dan Quayle’s GOP anymore; the party that criticized tv’s Murphy Brown for choosing to be a single mom would now praise her for being… pro-life (ironically, Murphy Brown made a choice – presumably, she had one). Down with absolutism, I say; Weisberg’s right that absolutism ended up tossing all those other so-called values – which supposedly were pretty important too.

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick has tips to Joe Biden on how to debate Sarah Palin – treat her like a man, Lithwick says; I think I’m going to have to agree with that; if you go in scared, you don’t look good for it.

Newsweek’s Andrew Romano on how Joe Biden may have already gotten on the right track with regards to Palin; Biden works with women in the Senate; it’s not like he can’t figure this out; umm, hopefully?

I don’t consider myself a liberal, but in this column of NY Times’ Bob Herbert, he highlights why liberals should be proud – they made great contributions to American history; they made history. (considering that the whole point of being progressive or liberal is to take action, should we be surprised? Conservatives are about status quo – not necessarily about action, at least not usually).

RIP Don LaFontaine. Discipline, commitment, excellence. If I had a choice to be known as the American President or unknown as the movie voice of God Himself “in a world where both of our cars are underwater”, I know who I’d want to be.

GEICO Commercial

5 Voiceover guys in a limo

Interesting article on theRoot.com about “From Piyush to Bobby,” as a look at Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and what Indian-Americans (Asian Americans overall) are struggling with their identity and getting their place on the table of American politics. Just in time for the Republican National Convention and Hurricane Gustav! (ok, sure, no coincidence).

So, yeah, I watched the RNC. It was more unappetizing to watch than I realized. I so disagreed with a lot that was said; perhaps I am reaching my own political evolution in my thinking. At the least, I had to hear out the thinking of the opposition, even if I disagreed with it.

Slate has an FAQ on Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), since we ought to know just a bit more about her. Factually, that is. I can’t really swallow silly gossip.

Her speech had good delivery; low expectations – and so a nice surprise for the Republicans, I suppose. Then again, I disagreed with a lot that was said.

John McCain’s speech — well, I suppose it was riveting in terms of biographical aspects; he’s not an orator; but good enough for him. Then again, I disagreed with a lot that was said.

Slate’s Timothy Noah on the scuttlebutt on Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), the VP nominee – hilarious! The big laugh for me: Noah says (I retained his italics; removed his hyperlinks),

The woman who made this complaint about big government taking your money is the governor of Alaska. Please take a moment to look at this U.S. Census chart showing federal-government expenditures, per capita, in the 50 states. You will observe that Alaska receives about $14,000 per citizen from the federal government. That’s more than any other state except Virginia, Maryland, New Mexico, and North Dakota. The chart is from the Census Bureau’s Consolidated Federal Funds Report for Fiscal Year 2005. I skipped over the 2006 report, the most recent one available, because Hurricane Katrina put Louisiana and Mississippi ahead of Alaska that year. But that’s an anomaly. Alaska held the per-capita record for sucking on the federal teat in 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000. According to the nonprofit Tax Foundation, Alaska gets back $1.84 for every dollar it pays into the U.S. Treasury—even though Alaska enjoys a higher per-capita income than 34 of the 50 states. This is a state that preaches right-wing libertarianism while it practices middle-class socialism.

NY Times’ Bob Herbert raises an important point: that the Democrats be very careful and don’t get distracted. His last line in the column was great: “[FDR’s] words echo across the decades because they resonate with the very meaning of America, a meaning that is so much deeper than what our politics have become. ‘We are fighting,’ he told his audience, ‘to save a great and precious form of government, for ourselves and for the world.’”

NY Times’ Seth Kugel on ideas of a weekend at and near Bryant Park.

The passing of Don LaFontaine, the movie trailer voice-over guy.

The passing of Bill Melendez, animator – especially known for the Snoopy and Peanuts cartoons – see LA Times obit. I didn’t know he was also the voice of Snoopy! God bless Charles Schulz and Bill Melendez for making these characters come to life for us.

McCain’s pick for Vice president left me a bit puzzled; I mean, all very nice that you picked a woman (and a governor), but the political positions involved leave me uncomfortable and Governor Palin’s experience level left me a little underwhelmed. John Dickerson of Slate summed up with a “Huh?” in his headline; yes, she was one of those considered, but still… well, it’s 2008 – we have an African-American presidential candidate; had a woman candidate; even had a Latino candidate (in Bill Richardson, even if he was more second or third tier); why not a woman VP candidate?

Democratic Convention thoughts:

Even though I have cable, I stuck with the PBS coverage. It was comprehensive stuff.

Salute to Teddy Kennedy.

Michelle Obama was pretty awesome.

Hillary Clinton was very good and gracious in her speech; the best of Hillary, I’d say (and I’m not exactly a fan of Hillary’s speeches; her sing-song speaking voice has been rather grating for me; but this time, she kept it smooth; I liked it). Mark Halperin on Time.com gave great grade.

John Kerry was actually pretty good speaking on the third night – quite strong. Halperin graded a good grade for Kerry on Time.com.

Bill Clinton did pretty well; hit all the points. Yeah, that’s right – he was a President of the United States – and he sure knows his politics. Halperin gave high marks on Time.com.

Beau Biden, Joe’s son and Attorney General of Delaware (and soon-to-be shipped to Iraq, as a JAG officer) was poignant in giving the intro to his dad; the camera’s capturing Michelle Obama’s getting teary eyed over listening to the tough tragedy of the Biden family was sweet.

Joe Biden – well, he was being Joe. His mother’s reaction to his reference of how she made him get back at his bullies when he was a kid (she mouthed to the person sitting next to her, “That’s true!”) : that was priceless!

Al Gore – “it’s time for a change…” – reminiscent of his vice presidential nomination acceptance speech of 1992, which I so very much remembered for getting my attention. He was right then; he is right now. If only 2000 had been different…! At any rate, I liked his speech; he really got to the heart of the urgency from the environmental front of issues (he scared me, as the news about the Arctic is rightfully scary) and he gave a wonderful analogy of Abraham Lincoln, who was seen as insufficiently experienced – yet inspired and re-shaped America. (well, Lincoln was Republican, but I’d think he’d be amazed and impressed by today’s Democrats and Obama). Anyway, I pretty much agreed with Mark Halperin’s grade on Time.com for Al Gore.

And, of course, the history making moment of Barack Obama as the first African-American presidential nominee of a major party on the 45th Anniversary of the March to Washington — well, it was something. The video preceding Obama was interesting – yeah, it summarized his bio and his career; but, in a way, I thought it was almost a sequel of “Dreams of My Father” – in terms of his bio, it focused more on his mom and his maternal grandparents and had photos of his mom, his sister, and him.

The speech itself – well, the experts grasped it far better than I did. As someone who’s read both his books and heard a bunch of his speeches (at least on-line or on tv, or reading about interviews), much of the speech felt like a smoother re-hash of Obama’s best lines. He really demonstrated his specifics and his wonkish side; in fact, it almost got boring for me – almost Bill Clintonesque, really in the lengthiness of specifics (and, really, Bill Clinton’s past speeches have bored me). I’d give it a very solid B for Obama; he pulled his punches on McCain where he had to, and he tried to sell himself in one of the big moments of this marathon job interview for the top job of this country. I like his lofty rhetoric speeches, but this was where he probably had to get it down solid. He should have smiled more, I think. I like his smiles, but again, this is a marathon. He’ll have more opportunities. Joe Klein posted on an article Time.com and is quite right that by next week, we might not remember this speech; one of the historians on the Lehrer/PBS presentation made the excellent point that if Obama wins, his inaugural speech could outshadow this convention speech. This is just one more step in the process.

Still, I felt a bit of a tug of the heart strings when Obama referred to the March of 45 years ago; that’s really something.

So, we’ll see! Only in America can we have such amazing times in the 40 years since the Civil Rights era; dare we hope and believe?

A funny interview in Newsweek with actor Don Cheadle. I was particularly amused by his response to the question about his former castmates George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt, regarding who’d he date, if he were gay, which he isn’t; he apparently figured Damon and Clooney would treat dates to nice dinners and said Brad Pitt would just go for a burger; hmmm! Plus, a reference to his being in the cast of the “Golden Girls” spinoff, “Golden Palace”!

On the environmental and alternative energy front: the idea of green roofs and the real difficulties of harnessing wind power.

Off to Washington DC for Labor Day weekend!