Man, I am frazzzled today!  All that travel over the weekend didn't make my todo list any shorter..  blech, Mondays...  Anyway I'm back, and I'm blogging...

An email exchange with my friend Gary; I had asked is the election this simple? 

Gary: I've been curious to hear what you think. Given her beliefs I'm guessing you're like me and this is a massive WTF on my support for McCain. I'm asking 'John, what are you doing?'

Ole: I’m having an interesting reaction to Palin. I like her, even though I don’t care for many of her views. I’ve always regarded disbelief in evolution as a leading indicator of “stupid”, but I don’t think she’s stupid. Possibly the fact that I have four daughters is intruding into my logical analysis. Possibly I have become significantly more conservative than I always thought I was… although I must say I’ve never fired a gun, let alone owned one, I am a libertarian on social issues (legalize MJ, why not, gay marriage, why not), and ardently pro-choice (it’s not a moral issue to me). But I am a hawk on national defense, borderline militant on illegal aliens, anti-government, and anti-welfare.

I’m starting to realize that I like or dislike politicians for reasons other than their stated views. An interesting realization. I guess a President doesn’t really get to implement their views anyway, but they do have to set a tone, and react to events, and so you start thinking about what kind of tone will they set, and how will they react.

I’ve pretty much reached the point where I’m not going to vote for Obama no matter what. I just don’t like him. As it happens I also disagree with many of his views (why do the Democrats have such liberal candidates, this is the second election in a row they’ve nominated the most liberal Senator in the whole Congress as their candidate!) – but really I just don’t like him.

I like this slogan suggestion: McCain-Palin: New Energy for America.  I also like the accompanying picture, shown at left...  wow.  [ via Instapundit ] 

As the polls swing toward McCain and Palin, ardent Obama supporters like Dave Winer are getting nervous.  "Okay, let's cede a point, the Republicans were brilliant, if cynical, in nominating Sarah Palin for VP.  It one-upped Obama in newness, in a year when newness matters, and it shines a different kind of light on McCain, he got his 'maverick' back - even though he never really was that much of a maverick.  Obama can try to refute it, but it probably isn't worth it, it probably won't work."  His advice: Obama, name your cabinet.  That would be cool! 

Hey, I'm [sort of] famous!  Remember my galactic recon of the Furnace Creek 508 race route?  Chris Kostman, the 508 race director, found it and decided to post it on the official race website!  And he had some nice things to say about it in his weekly AdventureCORP email: 

I'd like to offer 508 rookie Ole Eichhorn, who will compete in his first ever Furnace Creek 508 on 2x Team Charlotte The Spider next month, a huge thank you for putting together a phenomenal new online survey of the 508 race route.

Basically, Ole went out and drove the whole route, taking photos and notes along the way, then he combined that with new images of the route, in 2D and 3D, which he created with mapping software. The result is the best detailed look yet at the race route. That's no small feat, because we already had fantastic software-created maps of the route which 508 veteran Doug Dog Sloan had put together in previous years. The difference now is that the mapping software is even better (sometimes technology does improve things) AND that was combined with photos and editorial comments from a recent trip on the race course.

How cool is that...

At the Vuelta, Astana deliberately gave up the golden jersey to Eustkaltel, in a perfect demonstration of grand tour tactics.  Johan Bruyneel is the master.  So now we have Egoi Martinez in the lead, with Leipheimer and Contador poised to pounce back in the mountains. 

Today's cycling rumor: Lance is coming back!  I don't believe it, and tellingly, neither does Bruyneel.  Still you never know...  these great athletes find it hard to stay retired.  Look at Brett Farve, or Michael Jordan... 

The Humboldt squid beak apparently has some amazing material properties.  "The [razor sharp] beak contains a huge gradation of stiffness: The tip of the beak is 100 times more rigid than the base of the beak — so the base can blend easily with the surrounding flesh. Water is the key to the proper functioning of this gradient: If the beak is dried out, the soft base calcifies until it’s nearly as dense and rigid as the peak."  Very cool, and sets up the possibility that perhaps manufactured materials could mimic this capability too... 

Jeff Atwood, one of my favorite bloggers, is spawning a new process.  Congratulations!  As a dad I must say creating kids is way more important than creating code, but I seem to spend more time on the latter :) 

Tomorrow is Apple's Let's Rock event.  Speculation is running rampant on what will be announced; the most popular guesses are new iPods and a new version of iTunes which includes a "Genius" capability for auto-matching your music into playlists.  

My favorite possible new thing would be AppleTV 3.0 however...  "Why now?  Because on Feb. 17, 2009, by Congressional mandate, all full-power analog TV broadcasts in the United States will cease. That means that not long after Christmas, tens of millions of American TVs will go dark unless they are connected to cable, satellite or an analog-to-digital converter box."  Aha...