It was embarrassing how often Palin looked down to read her notes last night. I felt cheated. How can this possibly read well with people? We have so few chances to get to know this women. Not only can't she speak on her feet about important issues that matter, but McCain's campaign doesn't even trust her to speak on these issues without coaching her to constantly refer to her cheat sheet.

Salon.com does a nice job of following up on Palin's mysterious trade missions.

Matt Damon discusses McCain's actuarial tables

A new initiative, the Arizona Voter Reward Act, was approved for the ballot in Arizona. If approved, voters would be eligible to win $1 million dollars. Scratch-and-win democracy ... a scary state of civic duty indeed!

Don't forget to vote tomorrow!

Thanks to Jen Javier for the link to the story.

Below is a video made by Dove as part of their campaign for real beauty.

The video itself is a very powerful and concise portrayal of how beauty is constructed. It's also a reflection on the remarkable skill of the "magicians" (makeup artists, hair stylists, digital artists) who fabricate our reality. Despite the value of this video, the fact that Dove, a purveyor of "beauty" enhancing products, created it seems like thinly veiled camouflage for a marketing campaign. Or is it actually a genuine gesture of corporate responsibility?

Who needs South Beach!?! Using HP's new "slimming" feature you can digitally trim of pounds of the people in your photos.

Not only does the demo depict only women, but the feature is bizarrely found under the "artistic filters" menu... black & white, slimming, sepia...