Gobama!

Wahoo! Obama won!

OK, enough of that. Let’s get down to some analytical stuff.

I watched the election results on CNN. No particular reason why, apart from the fact that when I turned the TV on, it was already tuned to CNN, and I was too lazy to change the channel.

In general, I thought CNN did a fairly good job being neutral. They weren’t overtly conservative nor were they overtly liberal. They did always list the republicans before the democrats, but may have just been coincidence.

They had a new toy, too. Twice durning the coverage they had a “holographic host”, someone on the other side of the country that was being “projected” on the set. Now, I know enough about video and broadcast to know that they weren’t actually holograms, nor were they actually being projected. The news anchor was just talking to an empty space on stage, and the person was being added in after the fact. Gratuitous use of “holographic interference” was used as well (ie, they were slightly blue, slightly transparent, flickered a lot, and had a strange glowey halo around them). Nonetheless, it was a very interesting effect, and means that news casters no longer have to be standing on the CNN set in their studio. Also, CNN had a nifty little CGI model of the white house that they used in the same manor. I’m not sure what the benefit of the 3D model is, but it was cool eye candy.

Back to the election. The “mug shot” of McCain that they used wasn’t the most becoming, compared to the equivalent shot of Obama. They also seemed to digitally lighten Obama’s skin tone in the picture, making him seem more white. I’m not sure what the purpose of that was, or if it was simply an artifact of the giant display they were using, but it drew my attention.

Something interesting that I thought about during the race:

I watched the election with Elmo, from Elmo’s World, and I cheered when the Democrats took control of the senate. Elmo didn’t look to happy about it, and when I asked, she pointed out that it’s good to have a president from one party and a congressional majority from the other. Interesting. In the movie “Meet The Robinsons”, the Robinsons all cheer when Lewis fails at his invention. They say that the only way to improve something is to keep running into conflicts, because conflicts allow for improvement. You don’t learn anything from succeeding all the time. By the same token, I agree with Elmo in that the US can only be drastically improved when the improvement comes about through a discussion from TWO parties.

Oops, I went over my word limit again. Flackle.