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For those of us (like me) who are able to grasp content better by reading it (rather than watching video), there is a very good summary of last night’s vice presidential debate on the “Black Shards” blog.  Here is the link to the article, but I’ll publish a bit of it here:

Who’s at fault in lending crisis

Palin: Darn right it was the predatory lenders.  There was deception there and corruption on Wall Street.  McCain and I will get rid of corruption.  People need to band together and make sure we don’t get taken advantage of again.

We also need not to get ourselves in debt.  Don’t live outside our means.  Take personal responsibility for ourselves.  We can learn lessons from this.

Biden: Obama warned about this crisis two years ago while McCain was surprised there was a problem.

McCain’s response is to deregulate everything - 20 times he voted that way - while Obama wanted to re-institute scrapped regulations.  A while back McCain was saying that he would do the same thing for health care as he’s done for the banking industry.

Palin: We need tax relief so that jobs can be created here.  Obama voted 94 times to increase taxes instead of siding with the people.  That won’t bolster our economy.  Govt needs to be more efficient and learn to live with less.  Obama supported increases on taxes this year and that will kill jobs.

Biden: Obama did not vote to raise taxes and John McCain voted the same way.  But you didn’t address the question.

Palin: I’m going to talk straight to the American people and let them know what I’ve done, cutting taxes in many ways in my jurisdictions.

Taxation

Biden: 100M families didn’t get a single tax break from John McCain.  Obama wouldn’t increase taxes on anyone earning < $250K, no taxes of any kind will increase.  McCain wants to give $300B in tax cuts to wealthy and business.  It’s a different focus and people won’t pay under than they did under Ronald Reagan.

Palin: Small businesses fit into the $250k+ category and they’ll pay more.  Paying taxes is not patriotic; govt is often the problem and not the solution and the middle class just wants us to get out of the way.

Healthcare Plan

Palin: John McCain’s plan is clear:  a 5K tax credit that’s budget neutral, as opposed to a govt. run program.  Health care being taken over the feds won’t make anyone happy.  We will erase state lines to increase competition and bring down prices.  We don’t believe in wealth redistribution.

Biden: Redistribution isn’t the same as giving Exxon a tax cut - it’s fairness.  95% of small businesses earn < $250K and won’t pay more taxes.

In the McCain plan, health care is paid for by taxing as income everyone’s health care contribution paid by your employer.  As a result, 20M people dropped from employer coverage and lose out on a $12K/year plan in favor of a $5K tax credit.

Climate Change

Palin: In Alaska we see climate change’s effects more than other states.  There’s a natural cyclical effect as well as man-made impact.  But how do we address the problem?  I was the first gov. to form a cabinet to work on the problem and John McCain is right there with an “all of the above” approach to becoming energy independent and cleaning up the planet.

Biden: It’s clearly man made.  That’s why the polar cap is melting.  We consume 25% of the oil in the world.  McCain has consistently voted against alternative energy, 20 times he’s done so.  Obama wants to invest in solar and clean nukes and clean coal technology.

Drill we must but it will take 10 years to get any of that oil into use.

Palin: John McCain does support clean coal technology.  People want us to drill because that’s what we need.  We’re drilling for clean natural gas even now.  You’ve gone on record saying that drilling is “raping the offshore environment”.

Biden: I have 20 years on the record in support of clean coal.  Why did McCain vote against alternatives.

Pakistan vs. Iran

Biden: Pakistan already has nuclear weapons and can already hit Israel.  But Iran isn’t close.  Both are dangerous.  John McCain’s central focus is on Iraq but I promise that if we’re attacked again it will come from Afghanistan or Pakistan, not from Iraq.

We need to help them build schools along the border and compete with the terrorists there for hearts and mind.

Palin: Both are extremely dangerous.  General Petraeus and al Qaeda both say the central war against terrorism is in Iraq.  Iran cannot be allowed to acquire nuke weapons, period.  Israel is a sinking corpse per Iraq and this country cannot be allowed to acquire these weapons.

Barack Obama says that he would meet with Iran, et al, without condition.  That’s dangerous and should not be undertaken without serious diplomatic work beforehand.

Henry Kissinger and I share a passion for diplomacy but these dictators who hate American cannot be met with on a presidential level.  Diplomacy is very important and we’d engage in it.  But it’s important to use friends and sanctions before sitting down with Iraq.

Biden: The theocracy controls the security apparataus in Iran, not the president.  Our friends and allies want us to sit down with Iran.  Finally President Bush is ending diplomats to Europe to meet with Iran because that’s what’s needed.

Meanwhile, John McCain wouldn’t sit down with the govt of Spain, a NATO ally.  I find that incredible.

Palestine

Palin: A 2-state solution is the solution.  Sec. Rice has been trying to do that and a McCain/Palin ticket will work hard on that .  We will never allow another Holocaust, no matter what Iran does.  That commitment will be there.

Biden: Israel has no better friend than Joe Biden and I wouldn’t compromise on that.  But we needed NATO forces in Lebanon and they didn’t go in.  Now Hezbollah controls it.  The Bush admin’s policies have been an abject failure.  We must back Israel and stand with them.

Palin: I do not believe that the Bush admins polices have been a failure.  There have been huge blunders, as there are in every admin, but there’s too much finger pointing.  We’ll learn from out past mistakes and put excessive partisanship aside.  Change is coming.

Biden: How different is McCain’s policy from Bush’s on Iran or Israel?  I haven’t heard anything.  It’s the same so far.  We will make significant changes.

More HERE

Thanks to my friend Sumanth for the hit on this post and the “Berderp” blog for the post.

This boat is nuts - the “Maltese Falcon” I guess it’s called.  Owned by Tom Perkins (Hewlett-Packard, Kleiner, Perkins fame), the boat is 289 feet and absolutely dwrafs other boats around it easily measuring 40-50 feet.  Under sail like this, I’ve never seen anything like this.  Perkins, an avid sailor his whole life (read the book “Valley Boy” - Perkins’ autobiography for some other crazy sailing stories).  This guy leads quite the life.  Here’s what he’s riding around in these days:

The other boats are between 30-45 feet on average...

Next to the GG...Woah.

I wasn’t sure you could embed Hulu videos, but this obviously proves the fact.  Rad.

Seth Godin writes in his blog a very interesting article that revolves around the way that people make decisions and form opinions.  He states that people make decisions by processing the data that they have at hand, combined with their existing worldview on things.  He continues by stating that if people make bad decisions, it isn’t because they’re “stupid”, it’s because of a lack of data or an uninformed worldview.

I happen to agree with Mr. Godin (this guy has this certain knack of explaining his ideas so clearly and fluidly - no wonder he’s widely considered a top marketing expert).  In any case, I agree with this article and I think that (though subtly) - screams the fact that there is a need for a change in the way that we consume data - or at least a more efficient process of doing so.

So if we can accomplish the goal of diversifying our data, be it media or whatever, is it very easy for us then to change around our worldview?  Godin in his article states that it is not, though not attempting to at least consider the views of other opinions “sells short” your peers and society.

It is my humble opinion that open-mindedness is a key to progress, both as individuals and as a society.  Having a closed off worldview on certain ideas and issues, though being difficult to overcome, is potentially selling your peers and colleagues short on their personal progress.  Sure it’s fine to have particular views on certain issues - I just think we all need to try to do a better job listening to the views of others and thinking about where they’re coming from before we rush to judge.  Too much of the time, we stand to lose more by not considering other opinions and data that might not immediately appeal to our worldview - and rather just write off this data because we don’t agree.

While it’s fine to have opinions, a way we push ourselves to grow is to diversify what we intellectually consume and form our judgements after hearing as much data as possible.  Why do people say that “hindsight is 20/20″?  Because it gives us more time to consume the data pivotal to making the decision in the first place.  However if we keep our minds open to alternative opinions in the present, our decisions can become that much clearer.

Here’s little video of Godin at the TED conference.  Much of his talk revolves around content in his popular book “The Purple Cow“.

Late last night, Taylor and I launched a new food site/blog called “The Fresh Dish“.  The concept for the site revolved around the fact that so many of our friends love food - so we decided to provide a portal for them to write about it.  So far the response from who we considered our potential writers has been awesome.  So please check out the site - http://thefreshdish.com.

Moving forward, we’ll mostly be focusing on recipes, stories from travelling, restaurants and restaurant reviews, etc…If you do like what you see and are interested in writing, please let me know and we can talk about it.

We are planning on launching 2 other sites/blogs like this one - covering music on one side and arts and books on the other.  So please look for these sites coming online in the near future as well.  As for now, speaking of good food, here’s a video with Mario Batali making Ragu Bolognese - intense!  According to the video, he cooks this sauce for hours!  Not your mom’s average pasta sauce (unless you’re from Bologna).

Today more than ever, we Americans are affected by what’s happening in other countries.  Foreign policy is a paramount issue in today’s politics, we are at war in Iraq and Afghanistan and our economy will increasingly compete against the growing prowess of nations such as China and India.  While all of this interest stirs, our media providers are showing us less and less of the things that are happening in places away from our shores.

Awesome talk made by Allisa Miller - head of Public Radio International - at the TED conference this past March, outlines some very interesting facts.  Though we must keep in mind that she is using data collected from only a one month period (February 2007), the data is still quite startling.  She states that the percentage of news stories reported by the networks and cable news outlets from happenings in India, China and Russia accounted for a combined 1% of the stories reported on that month (1%!).  She also brings up that one story alone that month accounted for more coverage than all of the combined stories from every country in the world besides Iraq.  What story was that you ask?  Nothing less than the death of the Anna Nicole Smith!

What is wrong with this picture?   Doesn’t it seem wrong that our news outlets can’t seem to stop reporting on the lives of celebrities and focus on using their resources to attempt to enlighten us on how we might make our communities, country and world better places?

I certainly doesn’t appear to be our fault.  Ms. Miller continues to note that in the past 20 years, the number of Americans who say they “closely” follow international news has increased by 15% (from 37% 20 years ago to 52% today).  Part of the problem, Ms. Miller continues is that the number of foreign news bureaus in our American media companies has decreased by 50%.  It’s as if our own news outlets have given up on trying to cover the major international news, and simply focused on domestic news.

But why is this?  Part of the issue may be our geographical position in the world being rather isolated from the Eurasia and African continents.  That combined with our economy issues and rising cost of travel means that it’s simply cheaper and easier to cover domestic news.

However, I believe that this is simply another sign that points to the fact that the traditional “top-down” method of reporting on the news is broken.  In today’s world, the news simply moves to fast and happens in to diverse of locations for a single company or entity to keep up with it.  So what’s the solution?  How can a single corporate entity diversify itself enough to keep up with the world’s news by not simply building off the AP?  Is it even possible?  And if so, what sort of business model will make it feasible?  Anyway, interesting things to consider, especially if you care about international news.  Video of the talk is below:

Here are a couple of interesting interviews with the presidential candidates.  First is an interesting interview with Senator McCain from the ABC affiliate in Maine (yeah Maine baby).  The interviewer definitely asks some tough questions that I haven’t really seen McCain get put to very much, though unfortunately the interview is based primarily around the experience of Sarah Palin instead of focusing on the core issues.  In any case, I for one haven’t seen McCain interviewed in this one on one format very much:

The second interview with Senator Obama is with Bill O’Reilly from Fox News, and is only one part of the 4 part interview.  It focuses mostly on foreign policy, and I definitely recommend watching the other sections of the interview too if you have the chance: