This is the kind of thing we will tell our children about. This is our moon landing; our Brown v. Board of Education. What this means for our country is everything. It shows we aren’t stuck in a rut, like we have assumed for years now. If we can let something like this happen, it shows we really are ready for the future.

As long as I live I will always remember that feeling of excitement and anticipation as this election drew to a close. That feeling that big changes were coming, no matter who won. And yet, the results were never really in doubt toward the end, at least in my case. Sure, I had some tiny worries bouncing around in the back of my head, but as the last week came along and especially as the counting started, I knew that everything was going the right way.

And what a way to see it all go down! Those who watched the election on CNN were gifted with an excellent treat; using experimental video technology, CNN was able to construct a 3D holographic image of a person being interviewed in their newsroom. Not physically there, but they could be seen by anyone watching via television. They used it twice, once to get a report from Jessica Yellin, and another time to interview the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am. This in addition to John King’s masterful manipulation of the election board tracker made a nice complement to Obama’s talk of the future. When such mechanical marvels are used with ease by news agencies, public consumption can’t be far away.

I do have sympathy for those who supported John McCain; I would have been a sore loser if it had gone the other way. But Barack Obama’s leadership is what we need in this new century. Now, as Obama so eloquently put it, we do indeed stand on the cusp of a new dawn; I can only hope that everyone else in this country gets as swept up in the furor and we do unite as a people.

My wish may be closer than most think. Some may remember the excellent South Park episode where Cartman pretends to be a robot named AWESOM-O in order to pull a prank on Butters. What I didn’t realize at the time (though found out shortly later) was that AWESOM-O (albeit spelled differently) was real. ASIMO is one of the premier ‘bots literally walking around. Hailing (of course) from Japan, ASIMO is probably the more recognized robot-about-town, but others have risen to prominence for various feats.

The HUBO, constructed in Korea, sports one of the most expressible faces on a robot (and has been made to resemble Albert Einstein). QRIO, from Sony was the first humanoid robot to achieve running speed (as in movement involving both feet off the ground at once). You may have also seen four of the latest models dancing to Beck’s song “Hell Yes,” if you saw the music video.

Finally, in the interest of Robo-diversity, Boston Dynamics has given us one of the coolest, codenamed BigDog. Created to be a next-gen “army mule” BigDog is a four legged beat of burden that has an amazing sense of balance. You can find videos on Youtube of BigDog walking on ice, and regaining his balance after being shoved by one of the researchers. (I, personally, would never do such a thing, because the last thing I want for an enemy is mule-sized robot). There is truly nothing as simultaneously chilling and awesome as watching BigDog gallop across a room and jump over a simulated gap in the floor.

Considering that we can do so much this early into my lifetime makes me incredibly eager for future years. Imagine living in a world where humans walk the streets with ASIMOs and QRIOs walking around with us. A world where EMTs are assisted by their faithful BigDogs; where bus drivers are the busses themselves and cars do more driving than you do.

And this is just one aspect of what’s waiting for us.  You don’t have to be a sci-fi geek to appreciate the changes we’re seeing on a day-to-day basis. I wouldn’t be surprised if just 15 or 20 years from now, we’re all driving (or being driven by) hydrogen cars past hydroponic farms, and massive fields of solar cells and windmills. We’ll be talking to people from across the world just on the street through video screens that link real-time. Look around. Look at news sites. Watch the Discovery channel. The world outside is becoming more like the world in our books and in our movies and in our T.V.s everyday, and it cannot get here soon enough.

Apparently, it’s very easy being green. Everyone from computer manufacturers to television companies to tire companies is “going green,” and all the companies really want everyone to know it.

We’ve all seen them. It’s practically impossible to watch a commercial segment these days without seeing some kind of advertisement where someone sneaks in a mention of how the company is enviro-friendly. Televisions are “energy efficient,” computers are “Energy Star certified,” tires are “less resistant” (and therefore require less engine power to roll). The reasons companies give can range from the believable to the absurd, but my irritation with them is becoming more and more about how many there are, as opposed to their accuracy.

It seems like every public relations company has returned to middle school; one of the cool kids starts using a phrase and people pick it up in hopes of being cool themselves. The meme spreads until everyone in the school is saying it. Finally, we reach the point where we’re sick of that particular phrase, and for the sake of our sanity we never say it again.

This tactic of spending more money on telling people how green you are instead of spending that money on actually doing something environmentally friendly has come to be known as “greenwashing.” The phrase greenwashing was coined by Jay Westerveld in an essay that scathingly responded to the New York City hotel industry’s practice of requesting that customers reuse towels to save the environment. Unfortunately, these measures by New York’s hotels failed to cut down waste generation and failed to recycle more efficiently. Westerveld determined the hotel claims were only made for the profits they would reap from people eager to stay in a “green hotel.”

In essence, greenwashing is the PR equivalent of putting a bumper sticker on your gas-guzzling SUV talking about how much you love the environment.

It is unfortunate this fate has befallen environmentalism. However, unlike “uber” or “bootylicious,” “going green” is a phrase that needs to stick around. The enviro-friendly cause is an honorable one that should be pursued. It’d just be nice if every company in the world didn’t brag about it. 

Environmental concern exploded with the success of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” Immediately, companies jumped on the “go green” bandwagon. 

And then it got worse. Suddenly, car companies wanted to be cool, too. It began slowly: The first spot I can remember was from Honda, that for all intents and purposes said, “hydrogen cars,” and showed a Honda driving by a lake. All of a sudden, greenwashing went from annoying to downright hilarious. It’s fine to be in favor of hydrogen cars, but anyone can just say they like them. Honda has the chance to actually do something.

Next came the ads that made you want to cry, such as Esurance’s blatant attempt at pandering to environmentalists by having its spokes-toon yell “Quick, jump in the hybrid!” during one of its commercials.

And it didn’t stop. Subsequently, the oil and coal companies talked about how clean energy was so important to them and how they were researching new technologies to cut down on emissions. This is all well and good, but where are the results? These people have made record profits throughout the last decade. Are they seriously expecting us to believe they can’t make any progress past researching?

Still, this is but only tip of the iceberg. According to a recent article in Time magazine, the fall season of television is set for a massive info-dump of green commercials. If you’re afraid you’re the only one tired of it, fear not, you are far from alone. Just this month, the Advertising Standards Authority in Britain banned ExxonMobil’s ad claiming liquefied natural gas is one of the world’s cleanest fuels, and the ASA said it was intentionally misleading. Norway banned all car commercials from using the phrases “green,” “environmentally friendly” or “clean,” claiming that cars cannot do anything good for the environment.

In the end, it simply comes down to putting your money – literally – where your mouth is. If all these companies put half the money they sink into advertising with appealing phrases into programs that would actually help, we might actually see some beneficial results. As it stands, all we’ve gained is one more thing to hate about TV and a dilution of a vitally important movement in society.

People, I have had enough. My frustration has been growing for some time and the straw that broke the camel’s back has finally snapped. On the one hand, I have begrudging respect for John McCain for carrying this race as far as he has. But on the other, I am becoming more and more upset about the increasing falsehood that is coming from his campaign.

At the campaign’s beginning, I was feeling pretty good about the Democrats’ chances. After a presidency that will not be remembered fondly, it looked like the GOP’s chances of success in the election were slim. When Barack Obama was picked as the Democratic nominee, I was ecstatic. I felt fortunate to live in a time where it was possible for a man who could bring significant change to actually reach a position of power and influence.

Barack Obama’s followers quickly rallied around his message of change in Washington, a message of reform and doing away with “politics-as-usual” that resonated with Americans after eight long years of the same. 

But things started to get weird when Obama and McCain became the two nominees. Our choice has not been easy: One candidate has the charisma and eloquence to promise us a way out of the mess we’re in, and he has the record and the ability to actually deliver on that promise. The other represents the exact same thing we’ve seen for eight years, but he has mastered the art of spin control. 

If you read the promise on his Web site, voting for John McCain is akin to casting a vote for utopia. “Under a McCain presidency the United States will experience robust economic growth, and Americans will again have confidence in their economic future,” it reads. He does not detail his plans to accomplish these promises, but then, President George Bush never explained how exactly he’d accomplish his mission, either. 

McCain describes solutions to American issues such as “independence from foreign sources of oil,” and says he’ll “end the war in Iraq with victory and bring our troops home with honor.” Boy, that’s a tough ticket to run against. 

In late-August even McCain seemed to no longer believe his own hype because his campaign took a drastic shift. All of a sudden, McCain, too, was an agent of change, as was his brand new vice-presidential candidate, Sarah “New Girl From Alaska” Palin.

Sure, she’s got next-to-no experience with only two years as a governor under her belt, but that’s fine. The GOP must not think experience is that much of an issue – after all, it only calls Obama out on his lack of experience every other day. Never mind that as vice president Palin would be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

The hypocrisy doesn’t stop there. Whereas Obama wants to invest in alternative energy and use limited offshore drilling until we can be entirely free of oil, McCain has voted to reduce funding for alternative energy and lift existing bans on offshore drilling. Truly, he represents the exact kind of forward-thinking the 21st century United States needs.

As McCain will be so quick to remind us, he and his team of “mavericks” are completely detached from the “cronyism”-plagued Bush administration. Nevermind Palin’s abuse of powers scandal, in which the Alaska Legislature’s investigation concluded that she had abused her powers in office. According to the report, she “knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissable pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda.” Other than that, they’re both squeaky clean and scandal free. 

McCain also follows the classic Republican virtue of sticking to his guns, as evidenced by his maintaining the opinion that less regulation in the market is a good thing, except when the market takes its worst nose dive since the Great Depression. Suddenly, McCain’s all about regulation. As quoted in a Washington Post article: “In my administration, we’re going to hold people on Wall Street responsible. And we’re going to enact and enforce reforms to make sure that these outrages never happen in the first place.” 

Now, I’m not sure, but that sounds an awful lot like the oh-so-dreaded “flip-flopping” that made John Kerry famous in the 2004 election. Maybe it’s only flip-flopping when Democrats do it.

I honestly cannot comprehend how McCain has kept such hardcore support for as long as he has. It sometimes feels like he’s trying to sabotage himself, what with ripping off Obama’s slogan, hiring Palin in a blatant attempt at calling Hillary Clinton supporters to his side, or any other attempts at pandering that he’s been accused of.

In the end, it may surprise you to learn that I don’t actually hate the man. In fact, I have great respect for the service he has shown this nation, and I believe he genuinely wants to do right by this country. But he needs to stop trying to be something he’s not. Maybe at another time, he would be the right person for the job. But in this election, at this time in history, that job belongs to another.

Perhaps the article that ran last Tuesday ["Downloaders beware," ODE Oct. 14, 2008] struck a chord because I’m such an Internet junkie. It could also be that my Info Hell subject indirectly relates to this very issue. Either way, I feel I have to get this off my chest, if only for some peace of mind.

Piracy is among the premier issues needing to be dealt with as we finish our turbulent entry into the Internet age. Around the time the mp3 became a household term and new artists were gaining popularity just by posting MySpace accounts, the world of music dramatically shifted. Suddenly, CDs were no longer necessary for listening to music. Soon we had music Web sites that gave you a file rather than a disk. Just like that, record companies became obsolete because we didn’t need records. Hell, we could make our own CDs!

Really, I think this is the core of the issue. The recording industry has realized that its period of usefulness is coming to an end. Now people can freely buy instruments, equipment, and even song recording and editing software that work with home computers. Many of today’s artists got their big breaks from posting mixtapes online and then communicating via word of mouth. 

This recent bout of lawsuits on our campus is a good example of the record industry lashing out to halt the inevitable. In its furor, the Recording Industry Association of America managed to hit the least-viable target. How does the RIAA expect college students to pay $3,000 to $4,000 in fines when we’re already taking out bank loans to cover tuition fees as high as the sky? Forget the fact that none of us have that kind of money. These people are being hauled to court over the illegal downloading of 10 songs; it is like chopping off someone’s arm because they stole an apple.

In the interest of fairness, however, I must say that until something is changed in piracy laws, Internet piracy is like any other crime: If you commit it, you do so knowing the risks involved and the consequences therein. If you don’t, ignorance is no excuse. 

As the immediacy and the prevalence of music availability on the Internet continues to grow, the RIAA or the Motion Picture Association of America will not easily be able to stop downloading, unless they plan on taking half the country to court. Perhaps in the future, these various industries will have an awakening and adopt new policies to work with, rather than against the Internet. It cannot be denied that there is no going back now that the Internet has become such a mainstay of our society. Until then, those who download do so at their own peril. If you can’t pay the fine, don’t commit the crime.