What’s New with Wu

I am in Colorado for Phil Weiser’s annual telecom conference, Silicon Flatirons.

Made it to Steamboat Springs to visit a friend of mine.   In some places on the ski hill, nearly 10 ft of snow.

At Sundance I saw the Donnas perform in very small space, and completely fell for this band and in particular lead singer Brett Anderson.

I may give up this whole teaching gig to become a groupie. In fact for the first time I understand what would make someone into one.

PS If you are reading this and you are Brett Anderson, please email.

I’m in Iowa, working as a front-line volunteer.  It feels like “Private Wu reporting for duty–”  in the sense of simply following orders as opposed to trying to decide anything.  Its humbling and very cold.
I’m surely not the first to say this but this is the most interesting election in years and its a thrill to get a first hand look.  Today I went to a Huckabee event - I am fascinated by the man.  He proceeded to give a speech that was almost exactly 50% left-wing and 50% right-wing by conventional terms, switching back and forth so quickly it was like watching a magician.

On the left-wing side, speaking of a poor 7-year old he had met while Governor, Huckabee, explained that we need to measure the progress of America by how the least well-off are doing.

“That boy,” he explained, “needs better roads, better schools, and better health care…  If he’s doing okay then we can know the rest of us are doing fine.”

I can’t remember the last time I heard a Republican discuss the idea that we measure our progress by how we treat the worst off among us; despite the obvious fact that Christians are supposed to approach the world this way (seculars can rely on John Rawls for the same point).

But a minute later he was off on the sanctity of marriage, and the need to abolish the IRS. It was strange to watch.
The appeal of Huckabee comes from the idea that has a set of beliefs that dictate his political views, as opposed to having political views that dictate his beliefs.  That’s also the appeal of Barack Obama and John McCain.  And after 8 years during which supposed principles have been manipulated to achieve the grossest of political ends, its no surprise that these are the candidates that are flourishing, as opposed to the phonies.

Cambridge is meant to have fancy dress parties and I guess they came through. Pictured here is my mother and me, and Andy Klein who teaches torts at Indiana in the background.

I’m in England with the Wu family for Christmas.

My mother is a fellow at Clare Hall at Cambridge, and has joined the rowing team here. Despite being a little north of 60, she manages to hold her own with the students … Must be all the yoga.  She’s in position 5 here (5 from the bow).

Maybe when I’m 63 I’ll pick up varsity wrestling or something.

I was in Beirut over the weekend (on a trip from Jordan) and what a town.

When I arrived the President left for good, leading to the campaign below:

I’m off from Beijing into Mongolia today — back in a few weeks

I was in Woodstock today, where there are alot of hippie bumper stickers. You know what I mean. For example:

“Practice Random Acts of Kindness”

“It will be a great day when the schools had all the money they needed, and the pentagon had to had a bake sale to buy a bomber”

So in that spirit i was trying (with Julie H.) to try and invent some Hippie-style bumper stickers, with that same tone. The following may not be good, but I am trying to capture that same earnest tone:

“The World Would be a Better Place if the White House had a Drum Circle”

“Excuse me … I need to rock out.“

“What if children judged beauty pageants?”

“I brake for habeas corpus”

This is fun — off to Slate retreat for a few days!

Had coffee the other day with Wikitravel founder Evan Prodromou, in town for winning a Webby Award. Even though I’ve written a few unkind things about Wikitravel, we didn’t come to blows. Instead we chatted about Montreal, the Bay Area, whether Lonely Planet has gone downhill, things like that, great fun.
Wikitravel is trying to address some the (well-intentioned) criticism with Wikitravel Extra, which if you check it out is a way to add more user commentary on places.