Theory of Everything (2014)

IMDB

Theory of Everything (2014): A soaring mind trapped in a wasting body. Heart-warming and heart-breaking. And real. A-

Claudia Tatum, Now It's Personal

Richardson Idol has already voted Claudia Tatum (candidate for Richardson City Council Place 4) off the island. Normally, that would be the end of it. But I'm driven to add a postscript by one particular answer she gave in the candidate survey conducted by the League of Women Voters of Richardson.

The new technological era has allowed our city to provide better services through the online and smart phone systems. For example, we have the Richardson Application which allows citizens and stakeholders to access information from the palms of their hands. I believe in a more efficient way of conducting business: less paper and moving to a more digital era without forgetting our baby boomers.

Source: Claudia Tatum.

Say what??? That's me she's talking about. I'm a Baby Boomer. Now it's personal!

Richardson Idol - LWV Edition

Tuesday night the League of Women Voters of Richardson held a city council candidate forum. Normally, regular viewers expect this to be the big finale of Richardson Idol, the night when the last loser is voted off the island (or stage or whatever metaphor Richardson Idol uses -- I forget). But this season, we have yet to vote off our first candidate, not because the ballot is so strong, but because it is...let's face it, a tad on the weak side. That changes this episode.

Anyway, on to the questions. Let's go out of order so we can get first to the questions on most voters' minds.

POTD: Diplomatic Break

From 2015 03 11 Jakarta

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Jakarta, Indonesia, the nation's capital and home to foreign embassies. In this photo we see evidence that processing visa applications is not all that goes on behind an embassy's walls.

The embassy row across the street from our hotel included embassies for Poland, Singapore, India, Netherlands and Switzerland. All had guards and stout walls, often topped with razor wire (the walls, not the guards). Pro-tip: don't stand outside the Singapore embassy too long taking photos of the traffic. The guards will tolerate that for a while, but then politely ask you to move along.

Lack of Legal Basis for a Special Election

David Chenoweth, on his blog, does what Amir Omar failed to do: make a legal argument for calling a special election to fill the vacancy in the mayor's seat. It's not a very good argument, but it's something.