So I watched the debate this morning (that’s “last night” for all of you folks in the US). No knockout blows and Biden looked like he was really holding back against Palin. He never really attacked her- which makes sense because his job is just to attack McCain. Unfortunately, because he had so many opportunities to ridicule Palin’s non-answers and her folksy ramblings, his failure to put her away goes as a negative in my book.

Of course, the strategy of “let her hang herself while I look more presidential than she can ever hope to be” didn’t necessarily fail. At least according to this CNN poll.

I guess that the idea of somebody as unqualified as Gov. Palin even running for Vice President is so offensive to me that I want the floor wiped with her at every opportunity. I mean, look at what our last unqualified candidate got us into.

On to other things…

Last night also saw the Ig Nobel Award ceremonies at Harvard University. These are so much fun and I love to attend them. An organization called The Annals of Improbable Research puts on this parody of the Nobel Prizes every October to highlight scientific research that “first makes people laugh, and then makes them think.”

Past winners have included:

1991 - Biology: Robert Klark Graham, selector of seeds and prophet of propagation, for his pioneering development of the Repository for Germinao Choise, a sperm bank that accepts donations only from Nobel laureates and Olympians.

1996 - Art: Don Featherstone of Fitchburg, MA for his “ornamentally evolutionary” invention, the plastic pink flamingo.

2001 - Astrophysics: Dr. Jack Van Impe & Rexella Van Impe of Jack Van Impe Ministries, for their discovery that black holes fulfill all of the technical requirements for the location of Hell.

2006 - Acoustics: D. Lynn Halpern of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, and Brandeis University, and Northwestern University, Randolph Blake of Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University and James Hillenbrand of Western Michigan University and Northwestern University for conducting experiments to learn why people dislike the sound of fingernails scraping chalkboard.

The ceremony is always fun and includes presentations by actual Nobel Prize winners. A lecture series usually follows during the weekend where winner have a chance to explain their research. What started as a way to critisize bad science has turned into a notable event within the scientific community and the number of people submitting their work for consideration has jumped from none to over 10,000 per year. Scientists, it seems, are almost as eager to get this prize -which has no financial reward- as they are the Nobel Prize itself.

Anyway, this is just another one of the events taking place in Boston during this, my favorite time of year in the city. Attending funky, genre-bending music festivals is all well and good, but sometimes I just want to watch the Sox beat the Angles at The Good Life, go apple picking and head on over to Harvard for some good clean scientific fun.

Yes, I miss the weather, the Red Sox, apple-picking, my brother and my friends. But I’ve gotta say, I also miss the politics. It isn’t something that is discussed much here. And when it is, it becomes a bit of a teaching session where I try to explain American political process and theory to local Chinese or expats from other countries. And while I enjoy spouting off and being the know-it-all in the room, sometimes I just wish that there were others around who were literate and well-versed in these areas that I could clash with.

Hard-hitting political debates just aren’t that common here. The Guys With Guns tend to break them up when they get too loud.

Last week I caught the first Obama-McCain debate. It was in a cool bar near my apartment and there were about 25-30 of us in attendance. Most were Americans. It was a quiet affair, but it was probably the most at-home that I have felt since I arrived in Beijing. I look forward to a similar experience tomorrow for the Biden-Palin debate.

I consider myself an open-minded guy when it comes to who I will vote for, but I just can’t keep giving this lady any more chances. When she speaks, its like listening to a high school student in civics class try to muddle through a give-and-take with her teacher as she tries to cover up the fact that she hasn’t done the required class reading in a few weeks.

Matt Damon took the words right out of my mouth yesterday. Check out the frustration and fear in his eyes:

 

I have always liked Joe Biden. I can remember watching him give a speech in South Carolina back in early 2007 (when about 45 people were running for president, not just the crew that made it to the NH primary). He inspired me then and he is one of the most fun politicians to listen to today. Check out this exchange from the 1988 campaign. Its like Aaron Sorkin wrote it:

 

Now check out his side-by-side with Palin on Supreme Court rulings. WTF??!!!??? You mean somebody might actually pull the lever for the bumbling mental midget who can’t name a single Supreme Court case other than Roe v. Wade over the guy who speaks knowledgeably about enumerated powers and has overseen THOUSANDS of hours of hearings in Congress about such matters?

 

‘Nuff ‘Ced.