Seattle Trip!

During the Thanksgiving break I didn't have much going on, so when my friend suggested a trip to Seattle I was all for it. I love visiting new places and I haven't been to many of the cities out west.  I used to drive all up and down the east coast, so I was ready for this trip. We got to visit a bunch of the sights, the Aquarium, the Space Needle and the Flight Museum. We also went on this cool underground tour, that takes you around the old level of the city, before they raised the street level about 15 feet. The tour had all kinds of fun local history, which I always get a kick out of. I took a few pictures so I think I will share!

a car any true adventurer would love to own

sleek plane

some cool old timey planes

These were at the air Museum, which has a lot of interesting old planes.

a freaky looking fish

Me on top of the Space Needle

Big old needle

Election Night

November 2nd is an important date for politics, and this November 2nd I got to see the process up close and personal. I was hired by the Associated Press to relay the results of the midterm elections. I reported to the Civic Center and 8pm and didn't leave until sometime after 1 in the morning. I was standing watch by the voting machines and calling in reports every time there was an update in the numbers.

Tucked away in an ancient gym in the back of the Butte Civic Center, the counting room had the haphazard appearance of a makeshift headquarters – complete with folding tables, coffee machines and extension cords running across the floor. The brightly painted floor and unlit scoreboards are a striking parallel to the temporary purpose of the space, elections are the ultimate way of keeping score. After much human effort and tabulation, the winners the current political grudge match to be announced shortly.  A friendly potluck dinner tucked away in the corner with bubbling chili and all the desserts necessary to get through a long night of counting. A couple of counting machines whir away in the background.

There seems to be a delay with the voting machines. Our modern political landscape has been shaped, for better or worse, by these electronic machines, used to collect and tally votes. In recent years susceptibility to tampering and the overall security of these machines has come into question. These machines have removed an important human element in our democratic system, one that can be manipulated in a much more subtle and hard to detect fashion. What do you do with votes the machine can't read? How are those counted? The totals can be edited in such a way that it is hard to detect any tampering. Computer security experts have demonstrated the vulnerability of the voting machines many times. Governments around the world have started shifting back to the hand counting process, even though that method comes with its own set of drawbacks.

Montana has several interesting items on the ballot this year. There are ballot initiatives on taxes, payday loans, and funding wildlife habitats. There is also the question of a constitutional convention.
The U.S House district 1 race between Dennis McDonald (D) and Denny Rehberg ( R) is getting the most attention. There are also a couple of Supreme Court races and a two contests for state house seats. Those were the races that the AP was most concerned about.

All in all, I found this experience illuminating. This is the second time I have had an interesting election night. When I was interning for my Congressman back in Connecticut, I got to be in his "war room" on election night. I got to witness the phone call telling him he had won. This time around I was with the people that were making those phone calls. It was a great experience and I recommend that anyone who is interested in a career in journalism look for a position like this next election season, it's decent money and looks great on the resume.

Resurrection - Oct 28th, 2010

   
 I am planning on going to check out the Wilma Theater in Missoula to go to this show you see above. "Missoula's Premier Electronic Halloween Experience" looks like fun, figured I would share. I might bring some equipment and take some photos and/or some video. I haven't been up to Missoula in a while, I always have a good time there so I am looking forward to it! Here is a song by Kraddy, one of the artists performing.
Kraddy - No Comply (FREE DOWNLOAD) by KRADDY


    Things are going good with The Technocrat, slowly but surely we are getting more and more visitors to the site. I have also had the chance to write a bunch of fun articles, and I've been spending time down at the Butte Public archives doing some research for a series of local history articles. If you know of any colorful local history, feel free to point me in the right direction.

The Technocrat Online!

SO after a couple weeks of obsessive web editing, The Technocrat website is finally done and ready to be used! Come down and check out all our new articles for the week, be sure and add us to your bookmarks! If you want to take a look at the articles I have written so far, take a look here.


Links:
The Technocrat online -add us to your bookmarks!
The Technocrat on Facebook - click the "Like" and show us some support!


Please help us spread the word :)

Journalism

Me covering the summit

So its official, I'm finally a paid journalist! I got a job with The Technocrat doing Electronic Content Management and writing pieces from time to time. I am trying to get the Technocrat website updated and also covering national politics and economics. Expect a lot of news from us, things are coming along nicely, we should have a nice interactive web presence up and running fairly soon.
If you take a look at the September 15th issue, you can read a couple of articles I have written. The topics are the Iraq War and student debt, topics I am sure I will be revisiting down the road. If any readers out there have ideas for stories, be sure and let me know!
The Montana Economic Summit was an interesting experience. I was there to hear Warren Buffet and Steve Ballmer, as well as several different foreign ambassadors. The topic of the day was jobs, and that was mostly what we heard about, but there was some interesting points made throughout the event. Ballmer gave an evangelizing talk on the future of information technology, and Buffet was reassuring the masses that the American economy would not enter a "double dip" recession. Not sure I agree, but it was fun to listen. I would highly recommend that anyone interested in doing business in Montana check it out next time around.

Jonah Lehrer on Creative Insight

Jonah Lehrer: Creative Insights from PopTech on Vimeo.

Author Jonah Lehrer explores the power of outsider intelligence. At PopTech 2009, the best-selling author of How We Decide and Proust Was a Neuroscientist, notes that, paradoxically, lacking expertise on a subject can be an asset. 

    I posted this because I found it deeply fascinating. The idea the an outsider's perspective can be a huge advantage is an idea that appeals to me. The less emotional investment you have in a situation, the more rational you can be in your thinking about it. If you are interested more in Lehrer's work, he blogs at Wired Magazine and has written a couple of books about Neuroscience. His book "How We Decide" was a bestseller and was " The first book to use the unexpected discoveries of neuroscience to help us make the best decisions."

Economics

I have always been interested in history, and curious about the forces that shape our society. This lead me to an interest in Economics, which was going to be my major for a little while, but the math requirements got the best of me. I still retain a deep fascination with the subject. We all feel the effects of good or bad economic policy, so it seems to me we should all have an interest in making sure our leaders pursue sound economic policy. However, economics is called "the dismal science" for a reason, it can be rather confusing and depressing at times. My interest in the field is mainly focused on the Austrian School of Economics. I attended a week long seminar in the summer of 2009, which gave me a crash course on the subject.
There has been a lot of interesting news for Austrian Economics recently. The first bit of good news -

Today a Ph.D.-level seminar in Austrian economics commences at the University of Missouri. What is so important about this event is that the course is not part of a niche Austrian program dependent on external funding, but is part of the regular curriculum of a mainstream program at a major research university. This is a clear signal that Austrian economics is beginning to be taken seriously by mainstream economists.

This is very exciting because the field has been marginalized for a long time, it is good to see it finally getting some recognition. The other interesting piece of news was a recent Wall Street Journal article about Peter J. Boettke, a professor at George Mason University who is emerging as the "intellectual standard-bearer" for Austrian Economics. That makes two prestigious organizations that are giving credit to the Austrian movement in the same week, wild stuff! 


My interest in economics has caused me to follow the current financial crisis closely. This video I would like to share is about 45 minutes in total length and gives a good breakdown of what happened. I have a personal connection to this video in a couple of ways. it features interviews with Peter Schiff of Euro-Pacific Capital and Megan McArdle of The Atlantic. Peter just lost his dark horse bid in the Republican Primary for the upcoming Connecticut Senate race. I almost got involved on his campaign, but I came out here for school just as it was ramping up. This summer I heard Megan give an awesome lecture about blogging and the future of journalism at the Journalism & Free Society seminar in Philadelphia this past summer.


OVERDOSE - An ABC - Four Corners documentary about the coming economic crisis, featuring Gerald Celente and Peter Schiff. Original air date: 23rd August, 2010.