Democratic National Convention Goes High Tech

Throughout this week, the Democratic National Convention is going on in Denver (catch the live HD feed here), but for all those people who are too busy to catch the speeches and spectacle live, their official website is presenting all the video on demand in HD, you can even subscribe here to their feed to get all the updated videos as they’re released or just check out their video gallery here.

Just check out Ted Kennedy’s speech from earlier in the week to get an idea of the quality here. I just hope the Republican National Convention coming up is as technologically savvy!

Thanks to Minnesota Public Radio for the above pic.

Enjoy

Dany

Swing Vote Review

I didn’t really think Swing Vote was going to be any good going in and I was not wrong. I saw this film because I love politics and have tried to keep on the bleeding edge of this years Presidential election and I wanted to see what, if anything this film would offer about elections in America. This turned out to be a bad movie, but I was surprised that there were scenes that did manage to make me laugh.

The biggest problem, that I could not get over was that the entire movie glorifies the federal felony committed within the first twenty minutes of the start of the film and what made it worse was that the character who finds out about this and you would expect to DO something about this, sits back and in the end HELPS keep the secret safe!

It was funny watching the fake political ads and seeing Nathan Lane and Dennis Hopper, it may be impossible for either of these two consumate professionals to come to work and give a bad performance. This is also probably the best performance I’ve seen out of Kevin Costner (sad but true) in a LONG time, probably since 3000 Miles to Graceland.

I definately recommend that this movie be skipped, go back and watch The Dark Knight again, you’ll have a much better time.

Dany

Obama Girl vs McCain Girl Olympics… vs Paris Hilton?

It’s just the right time, with the Beijing Olympics starting tomorrow and the Presidential campaign in full swing… yeah, that’s why I’m posting this video of Obama Girl vs McCain Girl from Barely Political (subscribe here)… riiiiight (also because it made me laugh).

Oh and just because I can, here’s Paris Hilton’s frighteningly rational energy plan as she throws her hat in the ring for President from FunnyorDie:

Dany

Energy Efficient Cars - the JFKesque 10 Year Plan

It has been a long time since John F. Kennedy put forth the idea that we would go to the Moon in the span of a decade, but we accomplished that goal. Today we may need our politicians to make some sort of similar inspirational proclamations.

I realized that from the Ford Model T through today, cars average 20-30 miles per gallon (thank you Ford and the US National Highway Traffic Safety for that little fact) and after almost 100 years, that is just NOT acceptable.

I would love to hear one of our candidates proclaim an initiative that within ten years, we would mandate that all car companies that wanted to sell their cars in the USA would have to maintain an average fuel efficiency of at least 100 miles per gallon (or the equivalent using alternative energy vehicles) across their entire fleet (cars and trucks combined). I know there will always be some people that need larger cars that are less fuel efficient, others just love their Hummers and then there are truckers who haul massive loads across the country, but if we can balance that out with other, extremely fuel efficient vehicles, this would do a lot to help our current problems dealing with energy costs/foreign oil/national security.

I implore either Senator Obama or Senator McCain to adopt this plan and fight for this idea… check that, I’d rather see BOTH candidates addopt this plan and vigorously fight to make it a reality. I also hope that any/all of the potential 3rd party candidates adopt this initiative as well.

If you agree, let the candidates hear that it by digging this story and sending this article to your campaign of choice. Tell McCain about this story. Tell Obama about this story. Tell the third party candidates about this story.

Dany

JibJab is Back to Crack You Up with Time for Some Campaignin’

I think most of you remember the hillarious JibJabers from their amazingly funny hit from the 2004 election season: This Land! Well, they’re back for this year’s presidential election with Time for Some Campaignin’… JibJab never really went away, they’ve actually been making videos since 1999 way back in the dial-up days and before the dot-com bubble burst.

Thanks to Net@Nite (subscribe here)for interviewing those funny JibJab founders. Hopefully soon, those crafty JibJab guys will set up their videos as a podcast to make them even easier for people to watch and keep up to date on their latest funny videos.

Enjoy

Dany

As an added treat, here’s the This Land! video below, just in case you forgot what I was talking about.

Dan Carlin’s Common Sense About Political News

I know I’ve talked about Dan Carlin before, but after listening to his most recent episode

of his current events show called Common Sense (subscribe here), I had to bring him up again when he started talking about Barack Obama.

Ever since Tim Russert’s passing, I’ve noticed there aren’t that many interesting, exciting and original voices speaking out about politicals. The people that come to my mind that I enjoy listening to are Chris Matthews, Rachael Maddow, Tavis Smiley, Penn Jillette, John McLaughlin, John C. Dvorak (who is a technology writer, but who loves stirring it up interesting with interesting political views) and…. Dan Carlin.

Check out DanCarlin.com to get all his most recent updates. Thanks to MeFeedia for the above pic.

Dany

Extreme Guns

I like guns and with all the news revolving around the recent Supreme Court case that struck down the unconstitutional DC gun ban, I thought I would provide a few videos on the gun topic.

First we have this video by Penn Jillette, where he talks about his views on Penn Says (subscribe here), which I find very compelling about guns and freedom and how freedom should reign over safety.

I also found these two videos from Attack of the Show, Gun Apocalypse and Gun Apocalypse 2, where we get to see some of the most extreme guns available. These are some crazy guns that go way beyond necessary, but they look like a lot of fun too.

Thanks to Mizzourah! for the above pic.

Enjoy

Dany

The Onion - Bush Surveys His Damage of the USA

I almost feel bad promoting ANOTHER video from The Onion (subscribe here with iTunes), the problem is that they keep coming out with funny videos, which makes it very hard to resist.

The name is pretty self explanatory, watch as George Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency!

Enjoy

Dany

The Death Penalty, the Supreme Court… and the Onion

There has been a lot of press coverage surrounding the United States Supreme Court decision in which the court struck down the use of the death penalty in a child rape case (read the official decision here).

Now, I know this is a sticky topic, which is going to get on some people’s nerves, but I took some time to think about this after my cousin Richard let me know about this recent court decision. Even though it is very hard to argue in any way for child rapists, I ultimately agree with the majority opinion from the court’s 5-4 final decision.

Hear me out on this, I agree because of the underlying issues surrounding the case, not because I don’t think a child rapist should die a horrible death. Just because I think someone should be killed for committing a heinously crime, like raping a child, doesn’t mean that it should be the lawful to do so.

I do not believe in the merits of the death penalty anymore, so the idea of narrowing the scope of when it can be used is something that I agree with. The point was made by Justice Anthony Kennedy, that the penalty of death is not a proportional punishment for a crime which does not result in the death of the victim, which is another point I agree with.

I also do not believe having prisoners spend an average of more than 10 years on death row (which has been the case since 1995) is a humane way to treat a prisoner, it certainly doesn’t give the death penalty the perception of being a deterrent to violent crime with such a long time from conviction to execution either. I am not advocating leniency with these prisoners by releasing them or anything like that, I just believe that instead of sentencing them to death, sentence them instead to over 100 years in prison without bail or the possibility of parole.

One of the reasons behind these long stays on death row is no doubt the length of time the appeals process is for these inmates, but the right to appeal (and the advantages potentially available) is another reason for being against the death penalty. We are coming up with new technologies all the time and we hear of people being exonerated for crimes previously convicted of based on things like new DNA evidence. Once you put an inmate to death, there is no way to bring that prisoner back if it is later discovered that the person was wrongly accused, but if sentenced instead to spend their remaining days in prison, then an appeal could then be made at any point in the future to release the wrongly accused if new credible evidence surfaces.

I know there are many arguments both for and against the death penalty. Let me know what you think about this recent decision or just about the death penalty itself.

Thanks to DeathPenaltyInfo.org for helping me a bit with the facts here.

Dany

OK, now that I’ve probably thoroughly depressed you with this weighty topic, I need bring to you as a treat a very apropo to the above topic. The Onion just came out with another hilarious video (subscribe here) that just so happens to involve both the Supreme Court and the death penalty.

Check it out below:

Attempting to Break the Civil War Map

I know it is a gross oversimplification to say that the South votes Republican, while the North votes Democrat here in the US, but the New Yorker has an interesting video in their Naked Campaign series (subscribe here), called Map Quest, where they talk about which states Obama could win to get the magic number (270) in the electoral college, while also pointing out which states McCain could swoop in and take himself.

It’s quite interesting to watch, especially for a political junkie, like myself.

Dany

The Empire Strikes Barack

Earlier this week, Around the Net (subscribe here) unearthed a funny political video that already got over a million hits in which clips from the original (and best) Star Wars trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) were mixed together with clips and pics of presidential figures like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

This is a hilarious video that any political fan/film wonk needs to see!

Enjoy

Dany

Barely Political - Senator Mike Gravel Lobbies for the Obama Girl Vote

This has been a whirlwind presidential campaign and one man that has seemed to have been left behind is Mike Gravel. He is technically still in the race… he is just going nowhere, FAST.

Gravel decided to do something different and court the sexy Obama Girl in this comical video on Barely Political (subscribe here) even though she herself didn’t vote for Obama… or anyone else either in the primary election.

Thanks to Tech Daily Dose for the above pic.

Enjoy

Dany

Penn Jillette’s New Show: Penn Says on Crackle.com

I used to love listening to Penn Jillette’s radio show on Free FM which was available via podcast. I didn’t always agree with his libertarian viewpoint. It was a great show, but eventually that show ended and I got sad and I KNOW I wasn’t the only one, right Sara?…

Well, now I’m happy again, I just found Penn’s latest internet adventure is with Crackle, his new video broadcast show is called Penn Says (subscribe here) and it started up in mid January. I know I might be late with the news, but all the back episodes are available online so we can all catch up together now. Let’s start with his show on drugs and suicide.

Thanks to Playtime Las Vegas for the above pic.

Enjoy

Dany

John McCain Makes Fun of David Letterman

I may not be a huge fan of David Letterman, seeing the unofficial Republican nominee, John McCain, come to New York City and drop in during the monologue to skewer the long time Late Show host is definitely worth seeing.

Don’t get me wrong, this video won’t get me to vote for Senator McCain this coming November, but I do like to see these candidates take a break from the intense politicking, to try and have some fun.

I heard about this video from the most recent airing of This Week with George Stephanopoulos (iTunes subscription).

Enjoy

Dany

Barack Obama’s March 17th 2008 Speech on Racism in America

It has taken me a while to find a big enough chunk of time to watch it, but I found Barack Obama’s speech and I have been hearing how good his performance was, speaking on racism in America from March 17th, 2008.

In case you haven’t seen it, you can watch the entire 37 minute speech here. You should really take the time and watch the whole thing.

Dany

Boston Dynamics Releases Newest Big Dog Robot Video With a Bit of DARPA Help

After watching the latest episode of Geekbrief.tv, I had to find the latest video released by technology firm Boston Dynamics, in which they were showing off their most advanced quadruped robot, Big Dog, which moves in such an amazingly fluid way. It is able to walk up a snowy hill, along a rocky path, along a sheet of ice and even be kicked HARD by a person, all the while, maintaining it’s balance and not falling down.

It’s both amazing and a bit scary to watch. This project was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). I can’t hardly believe just how advanced robotics technology has come, this robot can even do this while carrying a payload larger than its own weight. The most impressive moments are at 35 seconds, 1:25 and 3:06 minutes (which are based on the youtube version of the video) into this three and a half minute video.

Enjoy

Dany

Nova - Germany’s Solar Experiment - Saved by the Sun

Here’s an interesting video for PBS Nova’s upcoming special about Germany’s solar power initiative.

The full special, Saved by the Sun is already available online here and will air on PBS on March 18th at 8pm. Check it out!

Thanks to Nova’s podcast for bringing news of this special.

Dany

Escape Pod - Homecoming at the Borderlands Café

The story published in the most recent Escape Pod (a science fiction story publisher) called Homecoming at the Borderlands Café is about a half hour long and extremely interesting to listen to.

It’s based on an alternate reality where the conservative American Confederacy had been successful in seceding from the American Union, but enough time has passed after the sececesion that there is no more slavery… but there are other problems (on both sides of the border).

The story as well as a subscription (or just get it through iTunes here) to the weekly publishings are free to listen to. These are great short stories. Take a few minutes and check it out.

If you enjoy this story, you’ll also want to find the little known movie C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America, a movie with a similar theme, just with slavery still intact and where the Confederacy won the Civil War.

Thanks to Maximum Fun for the above pic.

Dany

The Other Boleyn Girl

The Other Boleyn Girl stars two of the most beautiful 20 somethings in Hollywood today, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson.

These two play probably the most famous sisters in English history. Portman plays Anne, the smart and headstrong sister, while Johansson plays Mary, the shy and often looked over younger sister (according to this film, at least). Portman is extremely strong in this movie, in almost every scene she is the strongest presence whatever room she’s in. Eric Bana plays King Henry, but outside of a couple of scenes (one of which where he’s alone and furious with Portman in her room), it feels like he is completely overshadowed.

Two other strong performances come from Kristin Scott Thomas (The mother of the famous Boleyn girls) and David Morrissey (The Duke of Norfolk, patriarch and uncle to the Boleyn girls). There is one scene in particular, where Anne is being lectured to by her mother and Thomas‘ monologue about women’s power over men is wonderfully performed.

I know it’s early in the year, but as of now, my favorite performance of 2008 is Natalie Portman as the strong and complicated Anne Boleyn.

Thanks to Elstree Film Studios for the top pic and to EDU’s Worthless Blog for the second pic.

Dany

Onion News Network Recent Video Compilation

It’s time for an Onion News Network video update. Over the past two months, these are the 3 most memorable Onion podcast videos.

Enjoy

Dany