on the presidential election

I've met my fair share of McCain and Obama supporters. I'm most skeptical of the ones who find absolutely no fault in the candidate they support.

life a miracle

I'll be the first to admit that this essay may be a bit disorganized. But hey, there's a reason why I'm an engineering major.

http://leaderu.com/theology/irrational_faith.html

peter singer

This past Sunday, I had a pretty long conversation with Pastor Matt at one of the tables outside Panera. Towards the end of our conversation, a girl sitting at the next table leaned over, looked at Pastor Matt, and asked "are you Peter Singer by any chance?"

Haha, freshmen are so funny. Anyway, Pastor Matt had to explain to her that no, he was quite the opposite. I'm sure he was flattered, regardless.

income

Here's an interesting picture (taken from http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2008/03/american-politi.html). Basically, under Republican presidents income disparity has a tendency to increase, and vice versa for Democratic presidents. And income increases more overall under Democratic presidents.

The book which the article references apparently goes to great lengths to demonstrate why this difference isn't a fluke. Pretty interesting (written by a Princeton professor, too).

words

It's amazing the words you learn while studying for standardized tests.

first comes love...
then comes marriage...
then comes the baby in the perambulator!

I'm so going to teach my kids that.

translation error

From /.

"Preparing for English-speaking visitors, a restaurant in China recently ran its name through an online translator, took the result, then purchased and mounted a large sign displaying the English version of their name: Translate Server Error."

:P

circumstance

You never realize how much your parents take care of you until you start living on your own, huh? Well, this summer I feel like I must have missed at least a couple meals every week (either out of laziness or forgetfulness). And I realized, that after you eat, you can be a completely different person than who you were when you were hungry.

Being hungry (or tired) puts you in such a different mood. It's so much easier to be nice, happy, and generally good-natured after you eat. Isn't it interesting that so much of who we are depends on our physical circumstances (and others besides)? Then how can we boast in our own virtue when it is so often circumstantial? And how can we judge others without knowing their circumstance?

Anyway (no s this time :P), tomorrow I move. Moving is so much easier when you hardly own anything. My roommmate had to buy another suitcase for all the stuff he bought in NY :(

p.s. I sat next to Larry Summers at lunch about a week ago! You can find his signature on some of the dollar bills in circulation :)