For Ian/Jaina

We're thinking that someday the baby will read this blog (although it will probably be at least a year until he/she can read : ) ). So with that in mind, this post is for you, Ian/Jaina, so you have an idea of what was going on in the world when you were born:

This is a somewhat tumultuous time in the United States. We are in the middle of a very closely watched presidential election. It is the most drawn out election process ever, with long, contested primary races for both parties. The Democratic primary between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went until the very last race, with Obama now the presumptive nominee. John McCain, a maverick Republican, surprised everyone and won the Republican nomination. So it will be the old white man against the young black man in this race. People have been very excited about potentially having the first female (Hillary) or African-American (Obama) president. President George W. Bush is currently in office finishing up his second term. He is immensely unpopular and most of the country is very eager to see the administration leave office. There is some fear that Bush will try to attack Iran before leaving office. We are in the sixth year of the war in Iraq, gas prices are at their highest ever (over $4/gallon), the housing market has plummeted, and the U.S. has lost respect in many parts of the world. We are all hopeful that a new president will be able to turn things around. In addition to the war and the economy, immigration, the environment and health care reform are big issues in the election.

In pop culture, people like Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Brittany Spears are the celebrities that are constantly in the news. Cold Play and Lil' Wayne are popular in the music business. A new Indiana Jones movie was released this summer. Reality TV is popular, especially shows like American Idol. Regular TV is still recovering from the writer's strike earlier this year. Comedy news shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report are extremely popular, and are fueled by ridiculing the Bush administration's constant incompetence. The last book of the Harry Potter series came out last year, and the sixth movie is due to be released at the end of this year.

In sports, the Beijing Olympics are coming up next month. They have caused a lot of controversy as people criticize China, an developing economic superpower, for human rights abuses. At the moment, it looks like there will be no substantial boycott of the Games. China is very excited about hosting this Olympics as part of their emergence onto the world stage. I'm expecting to be watching some of the Olympics while I'm hanging out with you in your first few weeks, so you'll see it! In other sports, the best tennis match ever was supposedly played last weekend between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon (Nadal won at around 9:30 at night). Last month, the spectacular Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open golf tournament in sudden death after a 5th full round of playoff with Rocco Mediate. Tiger had just come back from knee surgery and was clearly playing injured. After winning, he announced that he had a torn ACL and would be out for the rest of the season. In team sports, the New York Giants upset the undefeated New England Patriots in the Superbowl this year in an excellent game, especially for us New Yorkers who root against Boston sports teams. The Celtics won the NBA finals against the L.A. Lakers. The baseball season is still in progress, but the Red Sox are very good, and the Yankees are also doing well.

In technology, the internet is well established and there is a lot of transition going on as a result. The music industry is trying to figure out how to make money now that people buy most of their music online (primarily through iTunes). Similar things are starting to happen with movies. High definition has become the standard for TVs, and people are watching more movies at home and fewer in the theaters. DVDs are the media of choice for movies, although downloads are becoming more common. Digital video recorders are very common now, allowing people to automatically record TV shows and watch them when they want, including fast forwarding through commercials (until the last few years, you had to watch a show when it was on, and there was no way to pause or skip commercials!). Digital cameras are also the norm now, and almost no one still uses film. We just got a new digital SLR for Daddy's birthday so we can take great photos of you! iPods are also very popular personal electronics, either for listening to music or watching video. The iPhone has been out for about a year now, and phones in general are becoming much more multimedia oriented. The second generation iPhone is being released this Friday. The iPhone allows internet surfing, email, phone calls, photos, music, podcasts, etc. It is the first time it has been possible to access the "real" internet from a phone. There is a direct link to YouTube, a hugely popular video sharing site. Other popular things on the internet are Wikipedia (a wiki encyclopedia), Amazon.com (an online book and everything else store), and Google. Blogs are now very popular, and are starting to have a real impact on things like politics. It is still unclear how they fit in with the regular media. In the computer world, Apple is gaining ground on Microsoft. Linux is also becoming a popular operating system. Microsoft released Windows Vista last year and it is mostly hated. Apple also released Leopard, its new OS. 64-bit computing is the cutting edge for personal computers right now. The top-of-the-line Mac being offered by Apple has an 8-core 3.2 GHz Intel Xeon processor. Quad-core is still considered cutting edge. I am writing this on our 4 year old Mac G5, which has dual 1.8 GHz processors, and was top of the line when we bought it in early 2004. There is a trend towards large and/or multiple monitors. I now have 3 24-inch monitors at work. In other areas of technology, energy is in the news a lot. There is a push to use ethanol as a fuel for cars. There is also interest in electric and hydrogen powered cars, but these are not available at the moment. Hybrids (like the Toyota Prius) have been available for several years are a quite popular, especially now that gas prices are high. There is a lot of talk about things like solar power, but it's not clear yet how viable this will be. People are concerned about climate change, but major changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are still controversial.

Internationally, there is also plenty going on. China is a rising power, and India may be next. China is still officially Communist, although the economy is opening up, and we both need China and have some fear of what it will become. Russia is coming back into a position of some power now, with the popular Vladimir Putin holding onto power despite officially leaving office due to term limits. Fidel Castro is still alive, but has turned over power to his brother Raul. The U.S. is waiting to see what will happen in Cuba. North Korea turned over some documentation last month about their nuclear program, prompting some progress in diplomacy with them. Iran continues to be stubborn about its nuclear program, and is being sanctioned by the international community. It is a powerful force in the Middle East, currently a very complicated part of the world. The U.S. is still in Iraq, where we made a preemptive strike and overthrew Saddam Hussein. The government there is still unstable. Many Americans would like to get out of Iraq, but it is not clear whether things will get better or worse if we leave. We are also in Afghanistan, where the new central government is also still weak. There is fear of terrorism around the world, which is part of the reason we are so involved in this region (they also have oil). In Europe, the European Union seems to be gaining power, and is constantly debating including new nations, especially from Eastern Europe. Africa continues to be in crisis due to war, disease, and famine. Currently the biggest concern is the genocide in Darfur. Latin America has been in the news less lately than the rest of the world, but has several growing developing countries, like Brazil. The biggest allies of the U.S. right now are Britain and Israel. Other countries support us to varying degrees, but we have lost some of this support due to the invasion of Iraq and the fear of inviting terrorism by being allied with us. There is hope that this will change with a new U.S. administration.

I think that covers all the major areas. I'm sure many things will have changed by the time you are able to read this!