Obama's DNC speech: a reminder of why America is worth fighting for

From Cory Doctorow, living in London: 

Barack Obama, a Democratic Senatorial candidate from Illinois, gave a barn-burner of a speech last night at the DNC, full of fiery sentiment that reminds me of what I loved about the USA when I lived there, and why I stick up for it now that I'm in a part of the world where the America-bashing is often ill-considered and all-condemning:

 

 

If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief-I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters' keeper-that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one.

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America-there's the United States of America.

There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.

There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

Link (via Electrolite)

Update: Here's a Link you can paste into RealPlayer or a Real-compatible app like MPlayer or VLC for video of the speech (Thanks, Quentin!) [via Boing Boing]

Glass houses

 

Polish-born architect Marcin Panpuch has designed a spherical, transparent houseboat (that’s not a boat) designed to solve London’s housing shortage by apparently creating a free-space-on-the-Thames shortage. The sphere would be divided into three floors, each built around a central core holding the stairs, kitchen, and bathroom. Inhabitants would use the lower floor as a bedroom, the upper floor as a living space, and the bottom floor (below the surface of the river) for storage, water tanks, heating, and computers. Retractable screens would be used for privacy, although you gotta wonder how much privacy you’d really get bobbing about in a big bubble on a river in the middle of London.

[Via Mobile-Weblog]

Bipedal monkey

 

It's a weird day for non-human primates. Natasha, a black macaque at the Safari Park zoo in Israel, became exclusively bipedal after surviving a near-deadly stomach disease. Natasha's veterinarian says that brain damage may be to blame (thank?) for her new ability. Pierre Boulle, your meme is ready. [ via Boing Boing]

Mothersbaugh's happy mutants

 

Mark "Devo" Mothersbaugh has created a stunningly surreal series of manipulated antique photographs. Many of them are displayed in vintage daguerrotype frames. From the artist's statement:

"It was in the early 1900's that Rorschach and other psychiatrists developed hunches regarding symmetry and the internal workings of man. Humans, great pretenders to bi-lateral symmetry, are in actuality, closer to potatoes in their lack of precise symmetry. A close look reveals what is truly inside the people around us."

Mothersbaugh's Beautiful Mutants collection is currently touring galleries around the United States. Link [via Boing Boing]