Faruk At.eş

The Economist endorses Barack Obama

Great piece with a lot of arguments not often made thus far:

Merely by becoming president, he would dispel many of the myths built up about America: it would be far harder for the spreaders of hate in the Islamic world to denounce the Great Satan if it were led by a black man whose middle name is Hussein; and far harder for autocrats around the world to claim that American democracy is a sham. America’s allies would rally to him: the global electoral college on our website shows a landslide in his favour. At home he would salve, if not close, the ugly racial wound left by America’s history and lessen the tendency of American blacks to blame all their problems on racism.

Obama pictures on the campaign trail

Love the ice cream, shoes and pull-up shots.

Maverick Personality Disorder

Maverick Personality Disorder is defined by a tendency to make rash, impulsive decisions that are regarded as both bold and correct--even if the decision directly contradicts another "bold" and "correct" decision that has been made only moments before. This impulsivity is to be distinguished from that seen in Borderline Personality Disorder in that in the latter disorder, self-destructive behavior is overt and intentional, whereas in Maverick Personality Disorder, the impulsive behavior is largely self-destructive, but the individual is rarely aware of it, instead thinking that they are acting "from their gut" in a reasonable fashion.

Town of Cochrane Community Mural Mosaic

It's a large mural made up of many small murals, but the unique nature of the small ones — very different in identity than the role they play in the bigger mural — makes this particularly fascinating. Especially give closer looks to the man and the horse's eyes.

Amazing tilt-shift time lapse videos

Obama could win Georgia

Taking the near unanimity of Georgia's black vote as a given, as state polling in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Indiana has produced like results, the question of who wins Georgia and by how much turns on two variables: how much of the nonblack vote does Obama win, and what is the percentage of eventual voters that is black?

It's an interesting analysis of the numbers from various polls on Georgia, typically seen as an easy win for McCain. If the calculations by the author are correct, Obama might win Georgia by a slim margin of 51-49. Given the trend around the country in favor of Obama everywhere, winning Georgia might just be part of a landslide victory with a good handful of surprise wins.

Not McCain's Friend

Derek Powazek is just one of many T-shirt making people around the U.S. who have responded within mere hours to McCain's derogatory "That one" comment and his constantly repeated "my friends."

Why Google App Engine is broken and what Google must do to fix it.

Aral Balkan addresses the most pressing problems with Google App Engine today:

You build an awesome new app on Google App Engine. You tell your friends. They tell 1,000 of their friends on Twitter who tell 1,000 of their friends and then, suddenly, you have all these developers hitting Google App Engine for the first time to see your app. Paradoxically, by doing that, they trigger the "intelligent throttling" "feature" in Google App Engine which freaks out and shuts down your app with an "Over Quota" error -- effectively making the "Over Quota" message the first impression most of your audience has of Google App Engine. Not good.