I fail

Basically, I fail at blogging. I haven't posted in many months, and I probably won't ever again. I could write a long post about why I fail at blogging, but that would actually be a successful blog post, so you see, it's not going to happen.

Instead, check out this little simulation I made. It took the idea of Braitenberg vehicles and extrapolated: "What if there were lots of them?!"

Sarah Palin: What a bitch.

Ugh. Read this shit about Sarah Palin in the NY Times. It sounds like her election as Mayor of a 5,000-person town was the ascent of a megalomaniacal incarnation of evil.

Ann Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin’s first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. “They were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her,” Ms. Kilkenny said.

The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to “resist all efforts at censorship,” Ms. Kilkenny recalled. Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support.
...

Ms. Palin also upended the town’s traditional ways with a surprise edict: No employee was to talk to the news media without her permission.

“It was just things you don’t ever associate with a small town,” Victoria Naegele, then the managing editor of The Frontiersman, recalled of Ms. Palin’s first year in office. “It was like we were warped into real politics instead of just ‘Do you like Joe or Mary for the job?’ It was a strange time.”

My favorite part, though, is the part about when her stepmother-in-law (stepmother of the "first dude") ran for mayor after she was leaving office:

It seemed like a good idea, except that Faye Palin supported abortion rights and was registered as unaffiliated, not Republican, people who remember the race said. Sarah Palin sided instead with Dianne M. Keller, a religious conservative and an ally on the City Council. Ms. Keller won.

I find the whole idea of her being vice president terrifying. What if McCain dies? Or becomes incompetent? Reagan had Alzheimer's while he was in office. This crazy bitch cannot become VP. Come on America. Why do you fight so hard against good?

"Quick Billy, climb inside for warmth."

Mmm mmm... Just like Grandma Palin used to make!

I don't know how much y'all have been following this whole Sarah Palin fake pregnancy thing, but I have, and am pretty convinced, courtesy of the DailyKos's investigative reporting.

These are facts of the case:

• She didn't tell anyone of her most recent pregnancy until she was seven months pregnant.
• She didn't look pregnant.
• She didn't behave pregnant.
• She was near-criminally irresponsible when she allegedly went into labor.
• Her then 16-year-old daughter Bristol was absent from school for 5-8 months (sources differ on this) during said time, allegedly for mono.
• Bristol looks somewhat pregnant, in photos from before the announcement, though this is debatable.
• Bristol is pregnant (again?) at 17.

Sarah, shortly after announcing she was 7 months pregnant.

And the family Palin, from around the same time. Bristol looks like she can't wait to exhale and let out that gut.

I don't think it's been definitively proven that Bristol, not Sarah Palin is the mother of little Trig, but it looks pretty damn likely. Read the DailyKos's dealie for many more details, and way snarkier writing.

Is this petty? Of course it is. It's incredibly petty. But this bitch is totally unqualified to be vice president. OK, there's the abuse of power in firing a colleague for not heeding her request to fire a state trooper for the crime of happening to be her sister's ex-husband. There's the fact that she's a fundamentalist anti-choice, anti-science, anti-environment, anti-gay hick who has less than 2 years experience governing a state that a) is more than 500 miles from the rest of America, and b) has one-quarter the population of Brooklyn. In a frighteningly real sense, Dennis Kucinich has more executive experience than Sarah Palin. Oh, and she also has no sense of American history.

If America elects the McCain-Palin ticket, I will have lost all faith in the American people, and will strengthen my endorsement of the secession of East-West Coastopia.

Rats! And bikes!

In case anyone is interested, here is an overview of the last big project my advisor worked on. I'm working on a continuation of that project, with young adult animals in a more complex environment. What I really want to do is get my hands on some sick motion-tracking software, which is going to require either a) grant money to buy it, or b) writing it ourselves. I'm both scared and a little excited for it to end up being option b. Once that's done, let the science begin!

In other news, my fixed gear bike is awesome. I've wanted one of these for a long while, so it's nice to have finally followed through on that. Riding it is incredible - I've never felt so in tune with both the road and the bike. Plus, it's incredibly light, and, if I don't say so myself, pretty damn stylin'. Take a gander:

This thing hauls ass. Which is somewhat scary, since I have to push back on the pedals to stop.