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Barack Obama Interview on 60 Minutes

Steve Kroft’s interview of Barack Obama on 60 Minutes divided into three videos. 

Barack and Michelle Obama are such a warm, personable couple in the interview.    It brings to mind what writer Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez called “the Huxtable Effect” in describing how the “The Cosby Show” may have been a factor in the election of Barack Obama. 

As Rodriguez describes it:

So it is, I believe, that Barack Obama’s successful candidacy and likely presidency were heralded with the arrival of “The Cosby Show” in 1984. On the air for eight seasons, “The Cosby Show” featured Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable, an all-American father, doctor and husband, in the lead role. The impact of Cosby’s weekly presence in America’s family rooms, as the fair-minded, fun, quirky Dr. Huxtable, cannot be underestimated in its affect upon the consciousness of Americans who were children and young adults at the time.

When watching Barack and Michelle Obama, I am totally reminded of the Huxtables.  Smart, funny, warm, and engaging.

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New Beatles track may be released!

From CNN.com: ‘Lost’ Beatles track could finally be heard

A “lost” Beatles track recorded in 1967 and performed just once in public could finally be released, according to Paul McCartney.

“Carnival of Light” — a 14-minute experimental track recorded at the height of the Beatles’ musical experimentations with psychedelia and inspired by avant-garde composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen — has long been considered too adventurous for mainstream audiences.

The improvised work features distorted electric guitars, discordant sound effects, a church organ and gargling interspersed with McCartney and John Lennon shouting random phrases like “Barcelona” and “Are you all right?“.

This has “hit” written all over it.  To be able to hear John Lennon gargle again.  I may soon have a new favorite song!

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Article from the Atlantic about the development of GM’s Volt

From the Atlantic.com: Electro-Shock Therapy

A fascinating look into the technological hurdles facing the development of GM’s electrical vehicle, the Volt.

Then, in late 2005, Lutz got wind that a Silicon Valley start-up, Tesla Motors, was moving toward production of a high-performance electric roadster. (It’s available this year, if you have $100,000.) At that point, Lutz “just lost it,” as he puts it. He refused to accept that a small start-up company could build and sell an electric car but mighty GM couldn’t. In early 2006, he summoned Jon Lauckner and told him to dream up an electric concept car for the 2007 Detroit auto show, a year away. The car had to be more than just interesting, he said. It had to be remarkable: a game-changer.

Reading this just kind of pisses me off about large companies.  Large companies like GM should have been pushing technology forward.  It’s not until GM sees a start-up working on an electric car that GM starts their own. 

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Got my Shepard Fairey Obama “Vote” poster today

ObamaVoteposter.jpgI ordered the Shepard Fairey Obama “Vote” poster on the Artists for Obama section of the BarackObama.com website as soon as I saw it.  It’s a numbered print from a 5000 print run that sold out the same day.  I received mine today and it is absolutely stunning to see in person and really quite large.

Shepard Fairey is the artist who created the iconic and ubiquituous Obama Hope poster.
Shepard Fairey’s site Obey Giant
Obama-hope.jpgShepard Fairey talks about his art and Obama from Current.

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iPhone Cubist- Obama Poster

Obamacubist.jpgThere’s a glitch in the iPhone camera where every once in a while it’ll create a strange, sometimes interesting little mosaic when taking a picture.

It turns out that there’s a Flickr group- iPhone Cubism devoted to iPhone created mosaic art.