Boys and girls: you can now officially cool your jets - I added some interior shots of the car, as promised … taken today. See “new blue beast” in the “cars” section in my gallery:
Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoy sitting in there and driving it. Oh, wait, I don’t think that’s possible… 
Ok folks - I figure before I total it and kill myself, you might want to see some “before” pictures of my new car, which I just brought home last night. I’ve already put about 60 miles on it. These were “quick and dirties” I did this morning - don’t get your hopes up for any works of art .. just a lovely car .. look for “new blue beast” in the “car” section of the gallery:
[Edited to include the main gallery link]:
http://gallery.citrano.com
Enjoy - and for those of you who whined and complained tonight because there are no interior pix, give me a couple of days… 
Folks - in preparation for Election Day, here is some mandatory Carlin listening.
holy gear-chirping, batman. this thing kicks ass. photos to follow
here’s an IR pic I shot on my way back from poptech…
At PopTech, Wooldridge, Rasiej and Trippi are talking about connected politics. A good session overall. I like that Trippi especially took a nonpartisan view - that both of the big parties are failing because of their ongoing attempts to stifle the grassroots.
Wooldridge claims that a more connected nation means a more conservative nation. I might agree if he means conservative in the true sense of the word - that government should be small and efficient. If he means conservative in the sense of these radical right wing idealogues who populate the White House currently - I disagree. The high-tech community I know are conservative/libertarian types who believe in government mostly staying out of the way.
And also, the Bushies are no more conservative than Kerry is.
“Can we have it all? No. In fact, the desire to have it all and the illusion that we can is one of the principal sources of torture for Westerners.
The problem is not that those in Western societies do not have the resources - it’s that we don’t know what the important resources are.”
One of my favorite humans is expressing serious concern about the way the PopTech program stacked up (male/female). Actually perhaps that is not fair - she’s not concerned so much about the ratio of women to men, but the pervasive message by some males who took the stage that we live in a world where gender roles are slow to change socially. She heard the message that we live in a world where physical power matters (it does), beauty matters (it does), women aren’t getting pregnant fast enough (I missed this), women aren’t cut out for certain types of geopolitical power (I think that view is simply wrong), and that male-dominated societies are still going to war to keep “their women” isolated (sort of true, but wars to withhold power from women are not going to succeed, and i think it’s more accurate to say that repression and those types of wars are both fruits from the tree of ignorance). Sherry is right about much of the myopia in those views and I want to know how we can fix it.
One problem is that the so-called “enlightened” Western nations do nothing to encourage allied societies to treat women as equals. Saudi Arabia is my favorite example - but there are many others - America does very little to push leaders and spread the word within these societies that women are equals and must have equal opportunity for a full and successful society.
Sherry is frustrated at the confluence of two things - the way women are underrepresented on the program combined with the perpetuation of male-dominance-messaging coming from the stage. I understand her frustration with this but (of course) hadn’t thought about it this weekend until she mentioned it to me.
What is getting on my nerves is not Sherry’s legit concerns - but some of the commentary I heard around the Opera House today (and a couple online posts) that smacks of angry ERA-brand feminism to me. So I’m going to rant about that a little bit.
Equality of opportunity and equality of voice should not be the fuel that feeds this ongoing leftie feminist fire that has attempted for 30+ years to iron out and deny the beautiful differences between the genders. Men have been socially brow-beaten into pretending all sorts of things that simply aren’t true (looks don’t matter, monogamy is hot, violence is never the answer, money isn’t relevant, women make good bodyguards, etc. etc.) and we have, as a society, overcorrected.
What I want is a world where men and women have equal opportunity and (of course) equal rights - but we all need to realize that our gender differences are as special as our interpersonal differences. Men and women have very different physiological/psychological skills, desires, and priorities. They are fundamental, they are the reason we are all here, without them the species would have died off long ago. Now, to appreciate our biological differences does not mean we should be limited or trapped by them. We must accept our limbic differences - we cannot change them - while also growing upon them and using this fancy new cortex we grew recently. Men & women operate from very different perspectives, are generally better at some things than the other gender, and prioritize very differently.
I know I’ve drifted way off topic here… but in a nutshell, tokenism is useless. We should have had more women on the stage, but the alarms sounded by some attendees seem to arise from a reactionary feminism that I get cranky about.
Sherry’s issue is different, though, because it gets to the issue of dis/empowerment. The best way to empower both genders is to embrace our differences - not hide from them - and evolve together and in awe of one another.
I know I’ve ruffled some feathers. For those of you who want to fight me, I’m ready and can take all of you. I’ll be at the town square at midnight.
Janine Benyus gave a good talk about the design of nature - relaying a great anecdote about arguing with a bookseller about whether her book should be in the “nature” section or the “technology” section. His ultimate reply “you have nature, and you have technology - pick one.” But she wonderfully pointed out that nature is the supreme technology. A delightful example she gave was the swarms of millions of cicadas down the Atlantic coast recently - and she asked, “did you see any collisions?”
Tom Daniel has followed with a talk on biomechanics - a bit gruesome. I am reminded a little of a book I read recently called “Sync” by Steven Strogatz. It was a great exploration of our inner compasses.
Ze Frank, who just became my favorite PopTech presenter thus far (an award ceremony will take place later), was brilliant and side-splittingly funny - part of the program segment on “happiness”. Suffice it to say you need to see him to appreciate it - I won’t even try.
But I will pass along a quote (paraphrased) of his response to an attendee who mentioned that kids, especially given their exposure to contemporary media, often are numb to the happier side of life, and how might they find it whether through technology or otherwise. He said something like, “Well, kids are insulated from the underlying joy and magic of life by its common-ness. [The problem is] no one claps when they get great search results from Google, yet it’s one of the best magic tricks around.” That may not seem as cool to you as it seemed to me in the moment, but I thought it a little bit beautiful as an off-the-cuff everyday-tech example of how we’ve become so conditioned to the magic of our world that it’s become so much background noise.
This served [to me] as a nice metaphor for our underappreciation of everything - not just search results, not just infotech, but even stuff like cars and sunsets and love and creativity. While on one hand, the hyperconnected world allows us to see so much, to experience so much - on the other hand, it can insulate us from the core of life’s magic - the essence of life that if unnoticed can make even the most beautiful and enriching life seem dull.
He also had some cool haikus about neutered dogs. 
Update: Ze is hanging out with me in the Press Room, and kindly assured me I have not overreached in my analysis of his Google comment - offering this Einstein quote in support, “You can either be amazed by everything or amazed by nothing.”
“I could basically do Lord of the Rings on a laptop right now.”
- Academy Award winning visual effects artist Jim Rygiel, remarking at PopTech on the rapid advance of computing technology.
Ok - here are my first few tries at using an infrared filter on my new camera.
Genzyme building on Soldier’s Field Road, Sunday evening 10/17.
Barnum & Bailey train stopped on tracks in Cambridge, 10/17/04:
Why are carnivals so freaking creepy? Discuss.
Today drove an Audi RS6 and a Volvo S60R. The RS6 is a totally amazing automobile (drawback that it’s an automatic but dear GOD trust me when I say it doesn’t matter, especially with the tiptronic paddles). This is a true supercar… and at $80k++ it ought to be.
The Volvo is very nice, but the S4 is superior in almost every way. There was a touch more headroom in the front of the Volvo, but the rear of each felt equally tight. Basically, with the front seat in my ideal driving position, there was precious little legroom in the back of either car. This is, for all intents and purposes, a very minor issue since no one is going to be back there 99.9% of the time, and I can move my seat forward and live with the pinch when there is. At least there are four doors. Read the rest of this entry »
50/50 is the best case scenario for Kerry tonight
Took an Audi S4 out for a nice long drive tonight. Wow. Like a little blue pill, except not so little. How long until I’m supposed to call the doctor? Four hours? Or six? More later.
Car hunt update.
The current short list:
But I am definitely accelerating the hunt. I had set a target date of February or March but I don’t think I’m going to make it… my instinct says the moment is nearing. I can practically smell the seat leather (don’t tell the dealers this). Accordingly, I will be test driving a 2005 Audi S4 tomorrow. My main worry about the S4 is reliability - I remain a little concerned as to whether Audi have pulled themselves out of their late-90s quality funk. The last few years of reliability numbers indicate that they have done so, and well. The S4 is an aggressive racer and all-around rocket ship - yet has the maturity of a stable, 4-door sedan. I like its look, its power, its stance. Originally I thought they might be too small, but sat in one a few months ago and was very impressed - seemed every bit as roomy as my i30. So, the size issue is off the table. Now, to drive one. To really drive one. I pity the sales rep, should they choose to accompany me.
Advice welcome.
Yes, I know I blogged this back when it happened. But back then, I only had the text to share with you. It’s so much better when you see the video.