Monday, October 30, 2006

- USA Today's list of the most influential fictional luminaries:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-10-16-influential-people-list_x.htm

- Three emerging technologies that will someday have a profound effect on your life:
http://www.thetechzone.com/?m=show&id=631&page=1

- 29 Things to do when your internet connection is down. I am adding one to the list...work on my Jim Tressel voodoo doll.
http://www.keepersoflists.org/index.php?lid=6094

- The life of a trivia junkie:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/10/24/jennings.jeopardy/index.html?eref=rss_showbiz

- Another NBA season starts in a few days. The only thing new on the Laker's bench is Phil Jackson's artificial hip. I doubt the Lakers will make the playoffs. My predictions for the season:

Eastern Conference finals: Chicago over Miami in 6.
Western Conference finals: Phoenix over Dallas in 6.
NBA Finals: Phoenix over Chicago in 5.

Here are the ESPN power-rankings for the new season:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking?season=2007&week=-1

Since I am doing predictions, let me give you my predictions for the elections a week from Tuesday. I give the democrats a 55% of winning the house, and a 40% chance of winning the senate. I think the democrats pick up 20 seats in the house, and 4 in the senate. One of the best political writers in the country, Michael Barone, writes about how things might actually shake-out on November 7th:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/10/the_story_behind_the_polls.html

Friday, October 13, 2006

- The U.S. population passed 300 million a few days ago. America has the highest birthrate among all industrialized countries. Why? Simple. Americans can afford their kids. People in Europe and Japan are over-taxed, over-regulated, and under-paid, so they cannot afford to have kids:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061017/D8KQCF780.html


- It may sound grotesque, but everyone of us has parasites crawling inside and outside our bodies. Scientists have found a particular cat parasite which they thought was harmless, but large concentrations of it in a woman can effect whether she gives birth to a boy or a girl. This may explain why in most countries the birthrate for males is slightly higher than the birthrate for females:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1920165,00.html

- Americans are kicking butt in the Nobel prize awards this year. Since the inception of the Nobel prize, no country has more Nobel winners than the U.S. Here are 20 things you may not have known about the Nobel prize: (link might not be working.)
http://www.discover.com/issues/oct-06/departments/20-things-nobel-prizes/

- The 10 worst portrayals of technology in films. I could add 50 more examples to this list. One in particular that jumps out at me...in the movie Independence Day, Jeff Goldblum, using a Macintosh, uploads a computer virus to stop the aliens. Thank goodness the aliens, who live light-years away and have virtually nothing in common with us, also use Macs!
http://www.gideontech.com/content/articles/326/1