Tuesday, August 14, 2007

- A map showing the majority religion in each county of the United States. Fascinating to see which religions are strongest in each part of the country. I could stare at this map for hours:
http://www.valpo.edu/geomet/pics/geo200/religion/church_bodies.gif

- Newt Gingrich writes a scathing article regarding my hometown and its pathetic school system. I don't care for Newt's personality nor how he handles his personal affairs, but I agree with his politics about 99% of the time. Too bad the city of Detroit will never listen to ideas like his:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070808/OPINION01/708080311/1008

- A 16 page piece from the New Yorker magazine about Rudy Giuliani. The article tilts left (it's the New Yorker after all), but it has some really good biographical information about America's mayor. In a future update, I will explain why I am supporting Rudy for president and why he has the best chance, of any republican candidate, to defeat Hillary:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/20/070820fa_fact_boyer

- Do you download software, music or videos from the internet? Eight years ago, Napster was all the rage. A few years after that, programs like Limewire, Bearshare, and eMule used P2P (peer to peer) technology for sharing files across the net. Now the latest craze for stealing stuff on the net is bittorrent. Here is a beginner's guide to understanding bittorrent and how to use it successfully:
http://lifehacker.com/software/ultranewb/a-beginners-guide-to-bittorrent-285489.php

- History's ten most over-looked mysteries. One of these on the list I wrote about a few years ago on this site (the Voynich Manuscript.) I would add the Roanoke colony to this list (which I also wrote about on this site.)
http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/top10_history_mysteries-1.html

- The rare river dolphin of China is no longer rare...it is now extinct. The first animal to go extinct in 50 years. I am certainly no animal-rights activist, but it is a shame to see a whole species disappear. Oh well, it will be back. Fifty years from now we will clone the sucker!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6935343.stm

- A computer scientist proves that a Rubik's cube can be solved with only 26 moves. I can easily match two sides of the cube, and occasionally I was able to get three sides. I was never able to solve it:
http://blog.sciencenews.org/mathtrek/2007/08/cracking_the_cube.html

- Winnie Cooper is a math genius! Kevin's struggles with mathematics and the relationship he formed with his hard-nosed math teacher are my favorite episodes of the Wonder Years. More about the real Winnie Cooper and why math is so important:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2007-08-13-danica-mckellar_N.htm

- Can you survive in outer space without a space-suit? The answer might surprise you:
http://www.slate.com/id/2171522/nav/navoa/

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