Tuesday, August 03, 2004

- The democratic convention is over. John "my wife is going to cost me the election" Kerry received little, or no bounce. In fact, the Gallup poll, which is the oldest and one of the most respected polls in the country, has George Bush receiving a bounce during the convention, instead of Kerry! Here are links to several polls taken during and after the convention. When reading polls, there are two very important things to consider:

1. Who is being polled? Most polls sample likely voters, registered voters, or adults. The polls that sample likely voters tend to be the most accurate. The polls that sample adults tend to be the least accurate, and the polls that sample registered voters are in the middle.

2. The numerical break-down of the sample. Polls that sample too many Democrats can be biased towards Democrats, and vise-versa for Republicans. In the 2000 election, 34% of people who actually voted proclaimed themselves Democrats, 33% Republican, and the rest were independent. These are the type of numbers that the legitimate polls try to accomplish.

Before the convention, John Kerry was in a better position to win than any other modern candidate. Now the opposite is true. No challenger, who has gone on to become president, has been in such a bad position immediately after his convention.
http://www.gallup.com/content/?ci=12565
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/Vote2004/kerry_bounce_poll_040802.html
http://www.americanresearchgroup.com/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5568072/site/newsweek/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/02/opinion/polls/main633546.shtml

- How fast can you read? Here is a website that will test you. I clocked in at 300wpm.
http://mindbluff.com/askread.htm

- Is the old cliche "some records are made to be broken" true? Why do we have such a fascination with sports records? Which records are truly remarkable, and which ones are merely mediocre? Here is an article all about sports records, and why we love them. My brother originally found this article:
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/Columns/?Article=sportsrecordsmain

- Humanity gets closer and closer to the sci-fi movies we love. Here is an article about how the military will soon use lasers in all kinds of combat situations:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/08/02/directedenergyweapons.ap/

- This is slightly old news, but I wanted to comment on it anyhow. The name of the new Star Wars movie has been revealed. It is "Revenge of the Sith." My favorite title rumor was Rise of the Empire, but the real title is my 2nd favorite. I think it's nearly perfect. After all, uncle George wanted to use the title Revenge of the Jedi for Episode 6, but thought it was too dark and violent. Now uncle George can use the word "Revenge" since it is clearly appropriate for the new movie. Remember, Darth Maul said in episode 1, "at last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi...at last we will have revenge." Well, now those wacky Sith Lords will get their revenge. For all the latest episode 3 news (including spoilers), follow this link:
http://www.theforce.net/episode3

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