It's kind of cute

John McCain on technology:

I read my e-mails, but I don't write any. I'm a Neanderthal -- I don't even type. I do have the rudimentary capability of calling up some Web sites, like the New York Times online, that sort of stuff. No laptop. No PalmPilot. I prefer my schedule on notecards, which I keep in my jacket pocket.

But my wife has enormous capability. Whenever I want something I ask her to do it. She's just a wizard. She even does my boarding passes -- people can do that now. When we go to the movies, she gets the tickets ahead of time. It's incredible.

I like that he thinks his wife is some sort of technology guru. It's rather endearing.

Full article here.

Second Look

I've been sick for the last few days, which means I've had a lot of time to read and learn today. Among the interesting things I've stumbled upon:

• A persuasive argument that Edwards would make the best president, put together by Steven Kirsch. I was led to Kirsch by this article in the New York Times which summarizes, in two pages, his entrepreneurial background, his philanthropy, and his fight against cancer.
  

• Physics for Future Presidents, recommended to me by a friend a few years ago, rediscovered through the internet. A bit silly that I'm listening to podcasts of a course I could have taken in person, but better late than never. And, interestingly enough, I think I'm getting more out of it now. I downloaded the audio lectures from iTunes Music Store, but you can get the video from Google Video, or both from the course website mentioned above. An SF Chronicle article about the popularity of the course here.

Time Marches On

Excerpt from a wonderful article in Salon, by Sidney Blumenthal.

In Rome and Paris I met with Cabinet ministers who uniformly said the chief issue in transatlantic relations is somehow making it through the last 18 months of the Bush administration without further major disaster. None of the nonpartisan think tanks in Washington can organize seminars on this overriding reality, but within the European councils of state the trepidation about the last days of Bush is the No. 1 issue in foreign affairs.

One of the ministers with whom I met, who had supported the invasion of Iraq and had been an admirer of outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair's, ruefully cited Blair's remark about Iraq at his joint press conference with Bush on May 17 at the White House: "This is a fight we cannot afford to lose." "Cannot? Cannot lose?" mocked the minister. "Should not have lost."