Kermit and Yoda travel via number stations

- The first photograph of a human being?
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/10/the-first-photograph-of-a-human/65196/




- Vintage Star Wars tourism posters:
http://stevethomasart.blogspot.com/2010/10/vintage-star-wars-travel-posters.html




- Simple cartoon of how the internet works:
http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaper/?how_internet_works




- I suspect these two have quite a bit to talk about:

- GOP should insist on new debate rules for 2012.  No Duh:
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/11/why-the-gop-should-insist-on-new-debate-rules-for-2012/




- First heard about this on the TV show Fringe.  Short-wave radio stations broadcasting secret messages:
http://www.damninteresting.com/number-stations




- Web-designers versus web-developers.  I am a developer.  I have never meet someone who is a pure web-designer, but I guess they must exist:
http://sixrevisions.com/infographs/web-designers-vs-web-developers/

Vader deduces 2010 election night

- Prediction time!  A week before the election:
House of Representatives: Republicans gain 52 seats.  They only need 39 to take back the House.  Some crazies think Republicans will take 60 to 70 seats, but I don't see it.  Republicans gained 54 seats in 1994. The economy is worse now than it was in 1994, but there are fewer vulnerable Democrats in the house today.  The largest swing in American history was the 1932 elections.  In the midst of the Great Depression, Democrats gained 97 seats!


Senate: Republicans gain 8 seats, not quite enough to re-gain the senate, making the Senate a 50/50 tie. Biden breaks the tie.  Here are the closest races to watch on election night, with my prediction for each one:
Pennsylvania: R-Toomey wins by 5%
West Virginia: R-Raese wins by 1%
Illinois: R-Mark Kirk by 2%
Kentucky: R-Rand Paul by 4%, despite the fact that Paul is a bit touched in the brain.
Colorado: R-Buck by 3%
Nevada: R-Angle by 1%.  Against any other opponent, Reid would lose by 20%.  Angle's a good kid though. She deserves to win.
California: D-Boxer by 3%
Washington: D-Murray by 2%.  If Rossi can't win the first two times, he ain't gonna pull it off the third time.
Alaska: R-Joe Miller by 1%


Jay Cost, a political commentator I have mentioned previously on this website, gives his prediction:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/morning-jay-special-prognostication-edition_508750.html




- Ten things you didn't know about the Empire Strikes Back:
http://io9.com/5661073/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-empire-strikes-back




- How to take better pictures with your smartphone:
http://lifehacker.com/5662812/how-to-take-better-pictures-with-your-smartphones-camera




- Science-fiction authors grouped by political leanings:
http://io9.com/5669211/a-chart-that-groups-classic-scifi-authors-by-political-affiliation




- Five things you didn't know about Alton Brown:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/71583




- Watched the 2010 BBC version of Sherlock Holmes. Mediocre, but will watch more episodes.  First episode was too busy.  Too many fancy, yet inaccurate deductions, and Watson was more interesting than Holmes.  Jeremy Brett spoiled me.  The other incarnations of Sherlock Holmes:
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/10/best-sherlocks-ever/




- Can you name the four American deserts?  Do you know their boundaries?  I didn't:
http://www.desertusa.com/life.html




- How much a pet will cost you during your pet's life-time:
http://www.visualeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Pet-Cost-FINAL.jpg

Time-travel with extinct animals and Michael Faraday

- Jurrasic Park is closer than you think.  The chances of bringing certain extinct animals back to life:

http://www.wired.com/inspiredbyyou/2010/09/re-animators/

- 40 best conservative blogs for 2010:
http://rightwingnews.com/2010/09/the-40-best-conservative-blogs-for-2010-version-3-0/




- Google's 2010 election ratings:
http://maps.google.com/intl/en_us/2010election/ratings.html




- Microsoft executive proclaims doom for blu-ray technologies. I happen to agree.  The future is downloading or streaming your content:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/09/23/microsoft-xbox-chief-predicts-doom-gloom-for-blu-ray-hes-right-too/




- Time moves faster at your face than your feet:
http://io9.com/5646585/ultra+accurate-clocks-prove-time-moves-faster-at-your-face-than-your-feet




- Astronomers find a potentially habitable planet a mere 20 light-years from earth:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100929/sc_afp/usastronomyplanet_20100929210707




- Michael Faraday, born September 22nd, 1791.  A top five scientist in my book.  He changed everything:
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/09/0922michael-faraday-born/

Thomas Edison never jumped the shark for a soda!

- How Thomas Edison tried to dominate the movie industry:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/thomas-edisons-plot-to-destroy-the-movies.ars




- An explanation of the term "jumped the shark" and why Happy Days shouldn't be at fault (although it really should be.)
http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/happy-days-writer-breaks-silence-show-did-not-jump-the-shark--1513




- Microbiology explained, via legos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ArusOqt8EM&feature=player_embedded




- When you want a soft-drink, do you say pop, soda, coke, or something else?  Largely depends on where you live:
http://popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html




- You have never met Galileo, Thomas Jefferson or Joan of Arc, but you have at least one thing in common with them...you are inhaling the exact same air they inhaled:
http://io9.com/5635391/youve-probably-shared-the-same-air-with-galileo




- The Texas Sharpshooter fallacy.  In other words, why we try to make coincidences seem like something more than they are:
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/09/11/the-texas-sharpshooter-fallacy/




- Nice piece about Republican presidential maneuvering for the 2012 campaign.  My opinion on why the republican hopefuls are playing coy?  Despite Obama's horrible poll numbers and the economy being in the toilet, at some point the economy will improve.  No one wants to run against Obama if the economy is improving:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42017.html

Cephalopods buy stuff and play Farmville

- Most popular U.S. consumer products. Very enlightening:
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/110348/the-popularity-issue


- Why do strands of spaghetti so rarely snap into only two pieces?
http://io9.com/5613155/when-spaghetti-snaps


- Six ways Farmville gets you hooked:
http://www.cracked.com/article_18709_6-devious-ways-farmville-gets-people-hooked_p1.html


- Simple animations of complicated mechanisms.  Even more enlightening than the first link:
http://mytechnologyworld9.blogspot.com/2010/08/complicated-mechanisms-explained-in.html


- Last week, Nepture finished an orbit around the sun.  Not a big deal?  Think again.  Nepture orbits the sun once every 165 years:
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/neptune-first-orbit-around-sun-since-discovery-100818.html


- 25 science-fiction movies you must watch. I don't make these lists, I just provide links to them:
http://io9.com/5619137/25-classic-science-fiction-movies-that-everybody-must-watch


- 24 things you might be saying wrong. I violate most of these on a daily basis:
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/24-things-you-might-be-saying-wrong-2338028/#poll-C926B9A6965B11DF88C4EE5DB10B4572


- How to make Monopoly more fun.  I like some of these suggestions:
http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/how-to-make-monopoly-fun/1408875


- Last year I watched a program on the Discovery channel about what would happen to life on earth, over a very long period of time, if human-beings suddenly vanished.  One of the theories put forth during the TV show was that certain cephalopods (squid and octopi) would emerge as the next intelligent creature.  The reasoning is rather sound.  Cephalopods, with their eight completely independent limbs, have very complex brains.  It wouldn't be much of a evolutionary leap for their brains to develop enough to create self-consciousness and creative thought.  The following article kind of backs-up that idea by claiming cephalopods have consciousness:
http://io9.com/5626679/three-arguments-for-the-consciousness-of-cephalopods

Cross-over sci-fi with Greg Gutfeld and Christopher Nolan

- According to Google, there are 129 million books in the world:
http://erictric.com/2010/08/06/google-129864880-books-in-the-world-and-counting/




- A spot-on analysis of Christopher Nolan and his movies:
http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2010/08/christopher-nolan-what-are-we-watching-exactly/




- Excellent article about Greg Gutfeld and Red Eye:
http://www.blackcatrum.com/articles/fox-nightowl




- Futuristic movie time-line:
http://danmeth.com/post/124593834/futuristicmovietimeline




- Forty facts about Intel:
http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Intelligence/40-Fast-Facts-about-Intel-826028/




- An overview of computer programming:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tech-fun/an-overview-of-computer-programming/




- Will Ferrell's Tour of Tech that Never Took:
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_future_ferrell/all/1




- Eleven greatest, craziest TV sci-fi crossovers:
http://io9.com/5606108/the-11-greatest-craziest-sci+fi-crossovers-in-television-history




- A pessimistic guide to choosing the right font:
http://www.cracked.com/funny-5647-fonts/

Electors first to disappear during mass extinction?

- Massachusetts is trying to pass a law stating that the winner of the presidential national popular vote will get all of the state's electors.  This is earth-shattering and could completely change how presidential politics are done in the U.S.  For example, in 2012 if Barack Obama lost the popular vote in Massachusetts (a virtual impossibility), but won the national popular vote, Massachusetts would award it's 12 electoral delegates to Obama, despite the fact that Obama lost Massachusetts.


Five other states are trying to pass the same law.  This kind of electoral reform seems monumental, but it would be quite easy to force this new system on the whole country.  The constitution clearly states that it is up to each state to decide how to distribute their electors.  It doesn't take a constitutional amendment to enable these laws.  Also, since a candidate only needs a majority of the electors to win the election, a cabal of several states could enact this law and force the rest of the country to abide by their system.  An example of how this would work:  If the following 12 states (California, Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts) passed this law, then 281 electoral votes, more than enough for a majority, would be locked into the candidate who won the national popular vote.  Since a majority of electoral votes would be spoken for, it would not matter how the remaining states distributed their electors.  There simply wouldn't be enough electors left for the other candidate.  In other words, it only takes roughly a dozen states to pass this law in order to make the U.S. presidential election into a national popular vote!


Reactionaries are already pouncing on this, stating that this law is mainly being pushed by the blue states, in order for Obama to run up his vote totals in large cities.  However, in a true democracy, this argument has no merit.  If each vote counts equally (as it should) then if a candidate can draw more voters to his side, he deserves to win.  If Obama can draw out legal, registered voters from the cities, good for him!  That's how a democracy is suppose to work.  The candidate with the majority wins.  The loser cannot complain.  The loser could have used the same strategy, or used their own strategy.  Both candidates are playing by the same rules.  Under such a system, if a republican lost to Obama, perhaps the republican should have spent more time in Texas, the suburbs, or the south, in an attempt to motivate republican voters.


Should America be a representational democracy (republican democracy) or a true democracy?  Perhaps that is the real discussion.  The electoral college was created over 220 years ago so rich, white, educated male landowners could decide presidential elections.  The founding fathers felt that the average American was not worthy of deciding the next president.  Nowadays, not only is that patently offensive, but it's downright false.  With radio, TV, the internet, and the availability of information in all kinds of forms, the average American has the same access to information as any current elector.  In fact, I am quite sure that many of the people who read this website are more educated about political candidates than the electors themselves!


If we want to install this kind of system, then let's get rid of the entire electoral college system, and do strictly a national popular vote.  This is as close to true democracy as we can get.  An article with further details:
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=499869




- Robotic exoskeleton to make wheelchairs obsolete:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/15/rex-the-robotic-exoskeleton-aims-to-make-wheelchairs-obsolete/




- Ten fun facts about Microsoft:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mashable/20100717/tc_mashable/10_fun_microsoft_facts_you_might_not_know




- A history of mass extinctions:
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2010/07/extinctions4.jpg




- A few months ago I started reading science fiction novels.  Specifically sci-fi novels with a futuristic mystery or crime theme.  I have read four books so far, and only enjoyed one of them.  Perhaps I should have used one of the following five book recommendation services to help find books I would enjoy:
http://lifehacker.com/5595842/five-best-book-recommendation-services




- A Google executive complains that the C++ and Java programming languages are unnecessarily complex.  No Duh, but Google's new programming language, called 'Go' is heading down the same path as Java and C++
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/354210/google_executive_frustrated_by_java_c_complexity/




- Best laptops under $500.  Good list:
http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/406/best-laptops-under-500/

Depending on a solar eclipse to break the heat wave.

- Twenty products that are cheaper today than ten years ago:
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/06/30/20-products-that-are-cheaper-today-than-10-years-ago/




"We're having a heat wave.  A tropical heat wave..."  The top seven historical heat waves in the U.S.
http://io9.com/5583124/the-7-most-miserable-heat-waves-in-modern-history




- In 1776, did people living in the American colonies have British accents?  It depends on your point of view:
http://www.nicholasjohnpatrick.com/post/767354896/did-americans-in-1776-have-british-accents




- I have been on this nutty planet for over three decades, and I have yet to find someone who can plainly explain when to use the words "affect or effect."  That, and other grammar conundrums:
http://www.drgrammar.org/faqs/#44




- Solar eclipse across the south pacific today.  Here is a wonderful map showing future solar eclipses.  North America gets two good ones in 2017 and 2024.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/future.html

Launch fireworks over Macho Grande

- Which states allow which kinds of fireworks:
http://erictric.com/2010/07/04/launching-fireworks-check-this-map-to-see-if-its-legal-first/




- Facts about Facebook:
http://www.infographicsshowcase.com/facts-about-facebook-infographic/




- Get me Rex Kramer!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/movies/27airplane.html?_r=1&8dpc




- On a related note, Back to the Future is 25 years old today.  A look back at the movies of 1985:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/cuttothechase/archives/212601.asp?from=blog_last3




- When intuition and math look wrong:
http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/60598/title/When_intuition_and_math_probably_look_wrong




- Top six Android smartphones and a comparison of the most popular smartphones:
http://jkontherun.com/2010/06/29/android-cheat-sheet-the-top-6-android-phones/


http://lifehacker.com/5575317/smartphone-comparison-chart-dishes-the-dirt-on-smartphone-specs

Pressing the elevator close button won't stop the BP oil spill

- Five dead auto-brands and why they died:
http://finance.yahoo.com/insurance/article/109823/5-dead-auto-brands-and-why-they-died?mod=insurance-autos




- Why do we still have power cords?  Yeah, why?
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ts_burning_powercords/




- The BP oil spill put into perspective, compared to other oil spills:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2010/06/08/pie-are-square-oil-spills-are-round/




- Seven myths about grilling a steak:
http://lifehacker.com/5571192/seven-myths-about-grilling-a-steak




- Everything you ever wanted to know about elevators.  Did you know that the close button on elevators doesn't work?  It's a placebo button.  I always suspected as much.  Seems like when people press the close button, the door closes, but not immediately:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all