Check out maplight.org – they track contributions to Congress and votes on various bills, so you can see the relationships.

It’s sick that our elections seem to be decided far more by money than policy, and the power in politics is dominated by money, not people. That’s why I like Barack Obama — he doesn’t take money from PACs or lobbyists.  Or so he claims. 

John Speck, aka Gamer X, recommended I try Portal, and I’m glad he did.  At first glance it looks like a first person shooter, and it uses the Source Engine used by Half Life 2 and Counter-Strike and the like.  But while you wander around a bunch of buildings with a gun, it doesn’t really count as a shooter, because you don’t shoot bullets — you shoot doorways. 

It’s a puzzle game.  You have to place the two sides of your portable doorway in increasingly crafty locations to progress.  The learning curve is gradual enough that you can wrap your brain around the difficult concepts without undue frustration.The writing is truly witty, and the end credits song made me laugh pretty hard.  And the levels get devious and interesting.

My biggest criticism is that the game is relatively short — but I made up for that by playing it through twice. And there’s no Macintosh version.

For some reason, my iBlog wasn’t updating any more, so I’m switching to WordPress for my personal blog.