Greymarch's Website for Advanced Internet Research

John Tyler and Lewis Carroll prefer Jedi Shadows over Hunters

2012-02-17T15:08:00.003-07:00

- "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"
http://io9.com/5872014/the-answer-to-the-most-famous-unanswerable-fantasy-riddle

- Having a grand time playing Star Wars, The Old Republic. Plenty of people have asked me to compare The Old Republic to World of Warcraft. Here is what I say to them: if you have never played an online game, and want to start one, I would recommend Warcraft over Star Wars. If you have never played an online game, and you are a Star Wars junkie, I would recommend Star Wars over Warcraft. The story of how SWTOR got created:
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2012/01/20/star-wars-the-old-republic-the-story-behind-a-galactic-gamble/#/0

- Former president John Tyler (1841-1845) has living grandchildren. How is that possible?
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/former-president-john-tyler-1790-1862-grandchildren-still-191230189.html

- The most popular sports in America:
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/mid/1508/articleId/950/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/Default.aspx

- Detroit's infamous purple gang:
http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=183

- Why is Scotland Yard named "Scotland Yard?" The Yard is located in London:
http://www.historybytheyard.co.uk/scotland_yard_name.htm

- The last World War I veteran passed away:
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/02/very-last-world-war-i-veteran-has-died/48402/

The average life-span has nearly doubled in the past 100 years, but the maximum age attainable has been rather static. Why is that?
http://singularityhub.com/2012/02/14/while-average-lifespans-increase-114-remains-a-stubborn-and-mysterious-upper-bound-why/

- There are billions of stars in the typical galaxy, and there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe. Let that sink in for a bit. In our Milky Way galaxy, there is likely at least one planet for each star:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203436904577154803588270744.html

- Stubborn body myths:
http://lifehacker.com/5873922/10-stubborn-body-myths-that-just-wont-die-debunked-by-science

Snoopy and Hobbes avoid starvation

2012-01-04T13:57:00.002-07:00

- I am not a big fan of religious parables, but this one does a perfect job of explaining the core difference between good and evil:
http://www.tpub.com/religion/shortstories/newsubmit/newpage37.htm

- The top six websites you should visit if you love to drink:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-6-websites-visit-love-drink/

- The making of a Charlie Brown Christmas. Linus's soliloquy on the true meaning of Christmas might be the most earnest moment in TV history, and certainly one of the top five moments in animated TV history.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/a-charlie-brown-christmas-the-gospel-truth-behind-how-a-humble-peanuts-holiday-classic-defied-the-odds/2011/12/02/gIQA0NNPWO_blog.html

- Let's stick with the Peanut's animation vibe. Seven things you didn't know about It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/its-the-great-pumpkin-charlie-brown-7-things-you-dont-know-about-tonights-peanuts-special/2011/10/26/gIQAQPZhKM_blog.html

- How to categorize fantasy literature:
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0000/7796/files/Dark_Fantasy_2.jpg?101916

- Why Robert Scott was doomed to lose the race to the South Pole (and ultimately perish due to his decisions.)
http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/survival/stories/why-the-british-were-doomed-to-lose-the-race-to-the-south-pole-6617203

- An extensive illustration of Batman's costumes. The illustrator calls this list all of the "significant" costumes. Being a Batman junkie, I could certainly argue with this claim:
http://cdn.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/batman-infographic.jpg

- A grown-up Calvin and Hobbes fighting with an adult, evil Christopher Robins and Winnie the Pooh. Wonderful! Wonderful!
http://io9.com/5871516/behold-calvin-and-hobbes-all-grown-up-++-and-fighting-an-evil-winnie-the-pooh

- IBM predicts five new technologies in the next five years:
http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2011/12/the-next-5-in-5-our-forecast-of-five-innovations-that-will-alter-the-landscape-within-five-years.html

- Five over-rated comedians. I dont agree with the first few sentences of the article, but I definitely agree these five comedians aren't even vaguely entertaining:
http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2011/12/31/george-carlin-wasnt-funny/?singlepage=true

Shoelaces suspects the Batman has lupus

2011-11-29T15:24:00.007-07:00

- Why most people are right-handed:
http://io9.com/5840005/why-are-most-people-right+handed

- Very interactive chart of the top 50 most populous countries:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204528204577009922309104512.html?mod=e2tw

- Do you really need to go to college? The amount of financial debt you accrue, and the huge number of worthless degrees companies are not interested in, makes college less tempting:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/11/college-has-been-oversold.html

- It use to be the case that most great scientists made their wonderful discoveries before the age of 25. That's no longer true:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45198217/ns/technology_and_science-science#.TrnEo1YbfpU

- Further versus farther:
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/further-versus-farther.aspx

Bruce Wayne's medical history, as charted by his physician. Fun read:
http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/blog/2011/11/14/patient-bw-dob-2161971/

- The very first photograph:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/diy-it/the-story-of-the-first-photograph/288

- What is a QR code, and how does it work?
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/seo/those-barcode-looking-things-theyre-called-qr-codes-heres-what-they-do/4339

- Historical college football stats:
http://football.stassen.com/records/

- When you woke up Sunday morning, November 27th, did the air you breathe smell a little bit fresher? Did your food taste better that day? Perhaps the pain in your hip disappeared? Your dog stopped chewing on your sneakers? You found a missing $20 bill in your jeans pocket? You suddenly realized you have more work vacation than you had previously thought? Your car stopped making a strange noise? Construction ended on a stretch of freeway you use every day? This is why:

FINALLY!!! After eight long, unbearable years of gut-wrenching madness, Michigan defeated The Great Evil. The universe has been set right. Love, joy, happiness and purpose return to our lives.

After the Big Bang, Polk and Einstein rejuvenate Motown

2011-10-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

- The five stages of the universe. Stages three, four and five (which make up a vast majority of the timeline) won't be much fun:
http://www.fathom.com/course/10701055/session1.html

- Ten tech concepts you have always wanted to learn:
http://lifehacker.com/5845665/top-10-tech-concepts-you-always-wanted-to-learn-about-but-never-did

- Top five scientists. Let's replace Turing with Isaac Newton (how the heck do you make a top scientist list without Newton!?!?) and let's replace Linus Pauling with Michael Farraday. The rest I can live with:
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=17431792&nid=968

- How much do the top tech companies pay their employees? Search by company and city:
http://techcompanypay.com/

- Name the 44 U.S. presidents in ten minutes. I got 41 out of 44. I struggle with the presidents from 1836 to 1860 and the presidents from 1876 to 1896. There were some real lemons during those two time-frames:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/games/Trivia-US-Presidents.html

- Is the city of Detroit finally starting to turn it around?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204294504576617280722057142.html?mod=e2tw
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-10-09/detroit-comeback-lions/50713354/1

Color-blind Super Grover forgets his ATM pin

2011-09-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

- Bill Belichick wants the extra-point to die in the NFL. So do I. Complete waste of time. Give the fans what they want. More action:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Bill-Belichick-wants-the-extra-point-to-die?urn=nfl-wp5693

- Super Grover!
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Grover

- Ten myths about TV:
http://io9.com/5834269/10-myths-about-television-that-fans-and-viewers-buy-into

- Geeky PIN numbers:
http://spikedmath.com/285.html

- How to quickly chill a canned or bottled beverage:
http://lifehacker.com/221974/chill-a-coke-in-2-minutes?tag=softwarehousehold

- Guide to living in ten fictional worlds:
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/08/pl_fictionalworlds/

- How televisions have changed over the past ten years:
http://mashable.com/2011/09/07/television-birth-infographic/

- Online color challenge. Test how accurately you see colors. 0 is a perfect score, 100 means you lack the ability to see any shades of color (which makes you functionally blind.) I scored a 5.
http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77&Lang=en

- Which college football teams are the most popular? This season if the #2 team on this list beats the #1 team on this list, I suspect the #2 team will leap-frog the #1 team in popularity:
http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/the-geography-of-college-football-fans-and-realignment-chaos/?src=twrhp

- Six movie plot holes you never noticed due to editing. I am a firm believer in the stupidity of the Dark Knight plot hole and the Indiana Jones plot hole. I will argue to my dying days that both those plot holes are perfectly awful and should have never made it into either movie:
http://www.cracked.com/article_19435_6-movie-plot-holes-you-never-noticed-thanks-to-editing.html

IBM's favorite science-fiction font

2011-08-21T14:37:00.000-07:00

- Life gets better at 50. Why? It sounds incredibly cynical, but makes perfect sense when you think about it, "In some ways, we become relieved of the burden of a future."
http://news.yahoo.com/life-gets-better-50-012600469.html

- Ten words you need to stop misspelling:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

- The IBM PC turned 30 last week. It's form-factor defined how people think of a desktop PC:
http://technologizer.com/2011/08/11/ibm-pc-oddities/

- Star Wars pilgrims:
http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2011/08/08/star-wars-tourists-follow-films-around-globe/

- Apple passed Exxon in market-cap last week. According to the Dow Jones industrials, Apple is the most valuable company in the world. However, there are many ways to judge the size and value of a company. Given other metrics, Apple isn't even near the top:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2011/08/does-this-metric-make-my-company-look-big.ars/

- 42 of the best fonts for writing computer code. I prefer Consolas and Monaco:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/work/FontSurvey.aspx

- Ten science-fiction books that changed the course of history:
http://io9.com/5832078/10-science-fiction-books-that-changed-the-course-of-history

- 90% of people who buy video-games never finish the game they buy. Lord knows I can be a lazy SoB, but do not lump me into this category. I bend over backwards to finish the games I buy. I have played over 100 single-player computer/console roleplaying games, and I can think of only two I have not finished: Wizard's Crown (super-old computer game) and Dragon Age (currently sitting on my living room shelf.) The reason why people don't finish video games applies to everyone, even if you don't play video games:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/17/finishing.videogames.snow/

- When you read as many websites, blogs, RSS feeds, message boards and FAQs as I do on a daily basis, you start to notice over-arching patterns in online writing. Online writing is different from academic and journalistic writing, but wants to have the same amount of intellectual credit. Online writers want to have a conversation with you, as long as you subconsciously notice that the writer is striving to be sophisticated, witty, grammatically correct, and a little quirky. Online writers tend to belong to generation-X. Nothing scares a typical gen-x'er more than not being liked. Bloggers often frame each sentence they write to not only entertain you, not only inform you, but to also make sure they don't say anything to you that might cause you to "no longer like them." Passive-aggressive words and phrases are the norm. Starting sentences with words like "sort of", "really", and "pretty much" give a feeling of easy conversation, and also allows the writer to casually distance themselves from future sentences that may offend someone. Am I guilty of this writing style? Sure. If you want to find the person who may be responsible for creating the modern online writing-style, start with David Foster Wallace:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/another-thing-to-sort-of-pin-on-david-foster-wallace.html

Dodo bird increases IQ by reading twitter

2011-08-03T14:02:00.001-07:00

- Top box-office film franchises:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/07/film-franchises

- Ten extinct animals that have been rediscovered:
http://io9.com/5822783/10-extinct-animals-that-have-been-rediscovered

- The electromagnetic spectrum, and how it effects you:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=graphic-science-electromagnetic-bombardment

- How many servers does Google use?
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/08/01/report-google-uses-about-900000-servers/

- Social media propaganda posters:
http://design-milk.com/social-media-propaganda-posters-by-aaron-wood/

- Prescription medicines for Winnie the Pooh characters:
http://blog.jayparkinsonmd.com/post/8389458745/nevver-no-more-problems-in-poohville

- Are smart people getting smarter?
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/are-smart-people-getting-smarter/

Mount Everest wears British cleats

2011-07-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

- Why do Americans think that people with a British accent are intelligent? Once an American is abroad for a while, this attitude changes:
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2011/06/accent-attitudes.html

- Tallest mountain versus the deepest ocean trench:
http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/infographic-tallest-mountain-to-deepest-ocean-trench-0249/

- Why do baseball managers wear uniforms? Coaches/managers do not wear uniforms in the other major sports.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1025725/index.htm

- Bletchley Park, one of the most important sites of World War II, and the birth-place of computer science:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20076578-52/at-bletchley-park-breaking-enigma-codes-and-winning-ww-ii/

- How most computer programmers get hired (myself included.)
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-07-04/

- Joey Chestnut again dominated the Nathan's July 4th hotdog eating contest. A story about competitive eating injuries:
http://www.slate.com/id/2169739/

Southpaws prefer C# and Deep Blue

2011-06-22T13:43:00.003-07:00

- Is being left-handed a sign of mental impairment? For years, I have heard people claim that the average left-handed person is slightly smarter than the average right-handed person. I never bought that notion. I don't buy this one either:
http://io9.com/5809813/is-being-left+handed-actually-a-form-of-cognitive-impairment

- Tipping etiquette, per country:
http://dailyinfographic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/110302-MINT-TIPSa.png

- How free is the state you live in?
http://mercatus.org/freedom-50-states-2011

- Most popular programming languages. My favorite is at #4:
http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html

- IBM turns 100 years old:
http://www.canada.com/business/computer+pioneer+turns/4956032/story.html

- 15 things you didn't know about outer-space:
http://www.onlineschools.org/blog/outer-space/

- An excellent biography of George Lucas:
http://flickeringmyth.blogspot.com/2011/06/hot-rods-droids-george-lucas-profile.html

- Keeping the synergy of the previous two posts, 10 things you didn't know about Star Wars:
http://io9.com/5813935/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-star-wars

- Yeah, yeah, I can't stand Slate either, but I stumbled upon this article and wanted to share it. Who is currently America's greatest humorist?
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/browbeat/archive/2011/06/17/america-s-greatest-living-humorists-parker-and-stone-or-larry-david.aspx

Professor Chaos rides out the twister

2011-06-05T21:09:00.004-07:00

- Make an avatar of yourself, South Park style. Here's what I might look like in the South Park universe:

http://www.southparkstudios.com/avatar/

- Walking to work, if you pass by a homeless person playing music for hand-outs, do you listen to the music? Do you pay attention at all? What if the person was a WORLD-CLASS musician playing some of the most difficult music ever composed? Do you think you would notice? The Washington Post put this idea to the test. Amazing article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

- A teenager with a useless limb volunteers to have the limb hacked-off, and replaced with a bionic limb:
http://io9.com/5803399/voluntary-amputees-opt-for-bionic-hands-over-real-ones

- When traveling, why does the trip home always feel shorter? Personally, I think it's because on the way home, we are full of new memories and experiences to think about:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201105/how-long-will-it-take-get-home

- Why TV ads are louder than TV shows. Quick spoiler...they aren't:
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/04/st_loudtvads/

- Tornado myths debunked. The two most reoccurring themes in my nightmares are tornadoes and spiders. I am sure a Freudian psychiatrist would have a field-day with that knowledge:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110528/LIFE/105280302/0/CAROUSEL/?odyssey=nav

- A list of conservative film critics:
http://whatwouldtotowatch.com/2011/06/01/your-guide-to-conservative-film-critics/

- Internet usage in the U.S:
http://www.steverubel.me/post/6142641472/internet-adoption-chart

Schroeder plays the 7th symphony on a tablet PC

2011-05-13T11:34:00.004-07:00

- The King's Speech. Damn good movie. Best movie I have seen in years. Definitely in my all-time top 30 list. During the future king's first speech, and during his last speech, haunting music plays in the background. I finally got around to finding the source of this music. Beethoven's 7th symphony. I should have known. Ludwig Van...the gift that keeps on giving:

- Peanuts cartoons with the last panel removed. Charles Schulz always put the punch-line in the 4th (last) panel. Without the last panel, his pleasant cartoons become bleak and existential:

http://3eanuts.com/

- The end of the printed book? I scored an android tablet at the Google IO this week. I plan on using it for eBook reading. I have family members who are voracious readers, but haven't bought printed books in months:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383938,00.asp

- Top ten diminished sporting events. Happy to see the world series on this list:
http://www.realclearsports.com/lists/diminished_sporting_events/

- The last World War I veteran has died. Thirty years from now, the last WW2 veteran will likely have passed away:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/world/europe/06choules.html?_r=1

Glengarry dons a tux and speeds along the digital super-highway

2011-04-20T20:39:00.006-07:00

- David Mamet, one of the great playwrights of the past thirty years, explains why he transformed from a brain-dead liberal to a real person. Greg Gutfeld wonders if Mamet can professionally survive the blacklisting he will surely suffer from the Hollywood and east coast pseudo-intelligencia. I think Mamet is so talented he will make it through this:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-03-11/news/why-i-am-no-longer-a-brain-dead-liberal/

- How many hours of practice does it take to become an expert at something? People who have studied this claim it's around 10,000 hours. One man puts it to the test, using golf as his subject:
http://www.tampabay.com/features/can-a-complete-novice-become-a-golf-pro-with-10000-hours-of-practice/1159357

- Mankind nears the end of the Age of Speed. If you think about it, this is kind of depressing (and significant.)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704587004576242450234233350.html

- An interactive map and timeline of every war from the past 500 years. Uber-fun:
http://www.conflicthistory.com/#/period/1918-1922

-A history of every football helmet, from every team you can think of:
http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/

- You have probably seen the 30 second version of this commercial on TV. Clever commercial and very catchy tune. This cat's gotta be the son of The Most Interesting Man in the World. A link to the full commercial and the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we1c5uzYsTI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5h-LAvQDCQ

- Why humans are more related than you think. Except for Michael Moore. He has no genetic connection to anything carbon-based:
http://io9.com/#!5791530/why-humans-all-much-more-related-than-you-think

- What Monty Python taught me about the software industry:
http://www.softwarequalityconnection.com/2011/04/what-monty-python-taught-me-about-the-software-industry/

- Why blue-ray has failed to catch on. Two words, "The Stream"
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/19/feeling-blue-blu-ray/

- Top 100 quotes from 30 Rock. My favorite? "It's after 6PM. What am I, a farmer?" I want to go there.
http://www.buddytv.com/slideshows/30-rock/100-awesome-30-rock-quotes-58992.aspx

Captain Kirk saves radiated government shut-down

2011-04-09T19:30:00.001-07:00

- Tech firms purposely hire people with Asperger's syndrome. This doesn't really surprise me. I had several computer science classes with kids who clearly suffered from mild Asperger's syndrome:
http://gizmodo.com/#!5769261

- A few years ago I discovered the wonderful writings of Matt Labash. I ignored his stuff (at my own peril) and now I am back reading to his articles. Matt's writing style reminds me of Berkeley Breathed, PJ O'rourke, and Thomas Wolfe, although I don't consider Matt quite as strong a writer as any of those three. I suspect my website readers have quite a bit in common with Matt. Give him a try. At a minimum, read his weekly faux-advice column. You won't be disappointed:
http://dailycaller.com/2010/01/11/welcome-to-ask-matt-labash/

- How old is old? Depends on where you live:
http://www.aging-online.com/how-old-is-old-depends-on-where-you-live

- Another article about humans living much longer lives. Get use to me posting these articles. I truly believe human-life spans will dramatically increase sometime in the next 100 years:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/who-wants-to-live-for-ever-a-scientific-breakthrough-could-mean-humans-live-for-hundreds-of-years-772418.html

- 1976 video with William Shatner explaining what a microprocessor is and why microprocessors are important. Fun stuff:
http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2011/3/11/AT&T-Archives-Microworld

- What certain levels of radiation will do to you, and how much radiation do certain events/places create:
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/03/xkcd.jpg

- Never build a model train set of your home town in the basement. Here's why:
http://xkcd.com/878/

- All-time domestic movie box-office, adjusted for inflation:
http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm?adjust_yr=2011&p=.htm

- Some of the major motion-picture studios want to stream movies to your television a mere sixty days after they have been released in the theaters, for $30. Thirty bucks, at initial glance, seems like a lot of moolah, but let's think about it further. It might be a bargain. You don't have to drive to the movie theater. You don't have to buy watered-down drinks or nasty junk food for outrageous prices. You always have the best seat in the house, at your own house. You don't have to put up with some annoying kid sitting behind you talking too much or kicking your seat. You don't have to drive home after the movie. It seems to me that movie theaters's days are numbered. Kind of like the drive-in:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/09/theater-owners-ready-to-fight-over-30-60-day-window-vod-movies/

- Late last night house Republicans struck a deal with Obama and senate democrats to cut 39.8 billion from the 2011 federal budget, thus narrowly avoiding a government shut-down. Being a die-hard, fiscal conservative, you would think I would be rightly pissed-off that Washington is only chopping off 39.8 billion from a budget that is trillions in the red. Well, guess what? I am proud of my representatives in Washington. Democracy is a messy business. Democracy is never easy, and it never goes how you want it to go. Despite the tsunami sweep of Republicans into the house last November, the country is still a very polarized place. There are still millions of liberals and progressives in this country who not only don't want to cut a dime from government spending, but actually want to increase it. We need deep, deep cuts in our federal budget. With the current political climate, and the current political make-up of the house and senate, it's impossible to get those cuts. As representative-R Daniel Issa said last night, "“We control one-half of one-third of the government. I think that when you come as far as we’ve come, $79 billion less than it would have been had we not taken control of one-half of one-third of the government, that’s pretty darn good.”

If house Republicans had pushed for much deeper cuts, one of two things likely would have happened:
1. The government shuts-down, and Republicans get blamed. Exact same scenario as 1995. It damaged Republicans in the 1996 elections, and it would have damage Republicans in the 2012 elections. Obama owns the bully-pulpit. It's very easy for a president to turn congress into the bad guys. It's easy because congress is a large group of people, with no true individual who commands as much media attention as the president, making it almost impossible to fight back against the president's individual attacks. Clinton knew this in 1996, and took huge advantage of it. Obama would have done the same.
2. Making monumental spending cuts right now will highly motivate liberals, progressives and independents to vote in 2012. Too many Americans are completely dependent on the government cheese. You quickly take that money away, and they will turn on you. You want a balanced budget? Putting democrats back in office will accomplish the opposite. America is a slightly center-right country. Elections are often decided by which side is more upset and more motivated to vote. It's a shame democracy works like that. I wish we could get massive cuts quickly passed, but we can't. You want a government that can rapidly make changes? Then you don't want a democracy. Trust me, you don't want to try any other form of government. Here's two articles explaining how we averted the government shut-down and who ultimately won:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52853_Page2.html
http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/04/09/who-won-shutdown-showdown-it-wasnt-even-close

Watson, Oscar and Remo take a ride in my Mustang

2011-02-27T11:01:00.005-07:00

- Annual Oscar predictions:
Best Picture: The King's Speech. A mature movie with great acting and earnest dialog. Hollywood doesn't make these kind of movies anymore.
Best Director: David Fincher. Bleh. Any movie written by Sorkin should be cast aside. I am fed-up with smug characters quickly talking at each other, instead of to each other.
Best Actor: Colin Firth
Best Actress: Padme Amidala, opps...I mean Natalie Portman.
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale. Pulling for Geoffrey Rush. Rush is incapable of delivering a bad line.
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo. The most wide-open race of the night. Anyone could win.

For further predictions, try these two links:
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20311937_20463415,00.html#20915551
http://www.moviefone.com/oscars-academy-awards/features/oscar-predictions

- Remo Williams reboot. The original flick felt like a bad TV-movie, but Chiun was one heck of a wicked character. If they cast Chiun correctly, the remake could be worth watching:
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jmullaney/2011/02/09/rebooted-remo-williams-could-be-the-next-indiana-jones-if-hollywood-doesnt-blow-it-again/

- Watson trashed the two human players on Jeopardy. I watched the whole thing. I was slightly disappointed with the computer getting fed questions through text messages, and not listening to Alex Trebek's voice. Seems a little like cheating. How close are we to a computer that can truly think?
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_machine_age_tM7xPAv4pI4JslK0M1JtxI/0

- History of the Ford Mustang. Bought a new Mustang a few weeks ago. I have orbited around the Sun almost forty times, and only now am I taking an interest in how an automobile actually works:
http://www.thecarconnection.com/image/100316208_ford-mustang-history

- Are you getting eight hours of continuous sleep each night? No? Here's why you should not worry:
http://www.livescience.com/12891-natural-sleep.html

- Alcohol consumption per country:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/02/daily_chart_global_alcohol_consumption

- Ambidextrous people are easier to manipulate than right-handed people. I doubt this is true. Oh wait, well maybe it is. I cannot decide. I am going back and forth. What do you think? I will follow your judgement:
http://io9.com/#!5766480

The Gipper and Jackie Robinson loved pasta

2011-02-06T11:45:00.002-07:00

- The ruins of Detroit. Certain parts of Detroit literally have become ruins. The government and private industry don't have the funds to rebuild these areas. Families don't want to live in these areas. These "ruins" will stay this way for a long, long time:
http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/index.html

- Dumbest reviews of classic movies:
http://www.trutv.com/dumb_as_a_blog/gallery/dumbest-reviews-of-classic-movies.all.html?link=DCF

- Is science-fiction getting more conservative?
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/is-science-fiction-getting-more-conservative/

- Who was worse, Hitler or Stalin?
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/jan/27/hitler-vs-stalin-who-was-worse/

- Jackie Robinson was a Republican. Very cool:
http://grandoldpartisan.typepad.com/blog/2011/01/jackie-robinson-republican.html

- The case for moving the Super Bowl to a Saturday. NFL regular season games are mostly played on Sundays. For numerous reasons, I have always felt the Super Bowl should be on a Saturday:
http://blogs.forbes.com/marketshare/2011/02/03/the-case-for-moving-super-bowl-to-saturday/

- What kind of pasta are you eating? An exhaustive chart:
http://www.infographicsshowcase.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/pasta-types-rigatoni.jpg

- Five myths about Ronald Reagan:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/04/AR2011020403106.html

How I met Harry Houdini in a gully

2011-01-23T10:17:00.001-07:00

- What's the difference between storage and stowage?
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/storage+or+stowage

- Why left turns should be illegal:
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/01/14/should-left-turns-be-illegal/

- Unsung actors who passed away in 2010. Of this list, Harold Gould and Steven Landesburg jump out at me. Gould was the constant professional and Landesburg always had a subtle layer of silliness behind everything he said:
http://rightwingnews.com/2011/01/some-of-the-unsung-working-actors-that-died-in-2010%E2%80%A6/

- Best time to buy certain things in 2011:
http://lifehacker.com/5736625/the-best-times-to-buy-anything-in-2011

- Want to be a super-hero? Harry Houdini came about as close as anyone. Emulate him:
http://artofmanliness.com/2010/12/20/lessons-in-manliness-from-harry-houdini/

- People with names at the end of the alphabet are more likely to be impulsive buyers than those at the front. Makes perfect sense if you think about it:
http://io9.com/5737510/people-at-the-end-of-the-alphabet-are-more-impulsive-buyers-than-those-at-the-front

- Want to see a second sun in the sky? The star Betelguese will soon (astronomically speaking) go super-nova, causing a massive burst of starlight which will last for several weeks. Should be completely harmless to us:
http://io9.com/5738542/earth-may-soon-have-a-second-sun

- Which sports are most popular in the U.S? I should carry this list in my wallet. Incredibly useful list when debating with someone at a sports bar:
http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/football-remains-1-us-sport-15798/harris-favorite-sport-jan-2011jpg/

- What do the numbers on your credit card really mean? The numbers are not random:
http://www.mint.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/CrackingCreditCode11.jpg

- What is a gully? I was exploring Welchman's gully last week:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gully
http://www.welchmanhallgullybarbados.com/

Watson travels the states without a floppy disk

2011-01-13T14:45:00.010-07:00

- Tomorrow (January 14th) a computer built by IBM will match wits against Jeopardy's two greatest champions. The contest will be shown on television in February. Deep Blue beat Kasparov in chess over 12 years ago, so you might be thinking to yourself, "why is this a big deal? The computer will crush them." The computer may very well win, but programming a computer to handle voice input and natural language processing in such a fashion that it can play an effective game of Jeopardy really is a big deal! More about the match:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101214/ap_en_tv/us_tv_man_vs_machine

- When you type the name of a state into a Google search, what is the first thing you see at the top of the search results?

http://dcist.com/2010/12/district_of_autocomplete.php

- Hunter S. Thompson's description of derby week at the Kentucky Derby. I may have provided a link to this article years ago. It's worth another read:

http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1192515

- Top fifty programming quotes of all-time:
http://www.junauza.com/2010/12/top-50-programming-quotes-of-all-time.html

- Twenty things I learned about browsers and the web:
http://www.20thingsilearned.com/home

- Why is the hard-drive of a personal computer designated with the letter C:? Why not A or B? To people of a certain age, this is a silly question. Similar to asking who is Johnny Carson, or asking someone if they have ever seen a phonebook. To young people however, this is a legitimate question:
http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/what-are-the-windows-a-and-b-drives-used-for-20110112/

Donald Draper's Thanksgiving dystopia

2010-12-07T13:13:00.002-07:00

- Seven future dystopias where liberals have won. *Shiver*
http://io9.com/5044657/best-future-dystopias-where-the-liberals-have-won

- Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novelist tells the tale of the world’s first computer:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/mf_smiley

- How people from 1910 looked at Thanksgiving in 1810:

http://www.abnormaluse.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-in-1810-1910-and-2010.html

- Do you know the difference between a seal and a sea-lion?

http://www.dolphinencounters.com/education-sealionvsseal.php

- Five commonly repeated words to hunt down in your writing:

http://lifehacker.com/5702325/five-commonly-repeated-words-to-hunt-down-in-your-writing

- The real Don Draper:

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2009/I-Married-a-Mad-Man/

Kermit and Yoda travel via number stations

2010-11-13T11:27:00.002-07:00

- 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

2010-10-25T18:24:00.004-07:00

- 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

2010-10-11T21:29:00.004-07:00

- 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!

2010-09-15T07:42:00.003-07:00

- 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

2010-08-31T13:48:00.001-07:00

- 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

2010-08-14T09:13:00.001-07:00

- 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?

2010-07-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

- 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/