My Friday Morning on the Big Collection of Tubes (Links)
After laying in bed for a half hour I decided to spend the morning seeing what the internet has for me to read, here’s what I found interesting.
A better blog post on voting than mine.
How Many of Me will tell you how many Americans have the same name as you, maybe. Here is an explanation of how to show that they assume independence of first and last names. I haven’t crunched the numbers, but if you think about how many Javier Sanchez’s, Brian Smith’s, Brian Sanchez’s and Javier Smith’s that are out there it seems like independence isn’t a safe assumption.
An advice column worth reading.
Pirates always make for good reading. If I were a journalist with big cajones I’d head for Somalia with dreams of a book deal.
A post on research into the genetic differences between liberals and conservatisms.
I listened to the sixtyone while doing my morning reading. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but it is a great site to find good, obscure music.
I recently realized the widget on the side of this blog that is supposed to have links to blog posts I like is going from oldest to newest, which makes it pointless cause who wants to read something that is a month old? It comes from an RSS feed I get out of google reader, if anyone knows how I could get it to display new to old that would be great (but chances are the person who reads my blog doesn’t know that, no offense valued reader).
Body of ‘Eh
If you big, dramatic Hollywood action flicks (and who doesn’t) you probably have enjoyed some of Ridley Scott’s movies. So when I saw ads for his latest, re-uniting with Gladiator and bringing on Leonardo Dicaprio to take on some spy business in the middle east, I thought to myself “That might be okay.”
And boy, was it okay. At no point did it move into danger of being great or horrible. Scott uses what has become the Scott (he and his bro use them) signature directorial techniques, flat colors, spy satelite shots of cities and the computery-looking type setting. See Black Hawk Down. It works but isn’t remarkable. The actors were fine. The plot was not very interesting.
There’s some twists, you aren’t sure who the bad guys are and who the good guys are. Maybe that’s the point, but movies are hard to enjoy without someone to either root for or root against. The only out and out villanous character is just a name for most of the film. It did seem like it could be a fairly accurate portrayal of a CIA spook in the middle east, but I’m not an expert on that kind of thing. I am an expert on flip-flops but that’s neither here nor there.
If you can see it for free (I did), might be worth two hours of your time, otherwise wait for a dvd and a dull week night.
Why Do We Need a VP?
Tis the season and WFS is apparently on a political streak, we’ll try and shift things up soon but first we wanted to get one more opinion in the blog-o-sphere.
Partisan political opinion motivated this post, namely the thought of Sara Palin as VPilf, but should we really have an office that is given next to no power besides what the P dolls out, is next in line to be in charge and is now selected not based on their qualifications for that strange job description but on who will complement the Presidential candidate best in terms of securing votes?
Assuming your picking based on qualifications and not politics, shouldn’t a candidate pick based on who they think would be the best President if they couldn’t be? Do the recent VP nominees seem like those people?
Just Watched Be Kind Rewind
Not nearly as funny as I’d hoped, but a nice flick. You could say it has heart.
The website is pretty funny. Check out the Lord of the Rings - Sweded.
Give me the ring you little jerk
Anyone Who Votes Because Rockstarts Tells Them to Shouldn’t
Ben Harper sent me an e-mail encouraging me to register to vote. Ben has a lovely singing voice and I can’t say I’ve ever walked away from one of his concerts dissapointed, but I’m going to respectfully disagree with him on this issue. I have been accused of being a bit of an intellectual elitist in the past, and my train of thought on this subject is the kind of thinking that caused that.
I’m not proposing a minimum IQ for voters, disregarding some practicality issues I wouldn’t be upset by it, but I’m not proposing it. I like that we live in a place were anyone who wants to has a say on who’s in charge. It’s unfortunate that a result is people with no knowledge of issues helping to decide them, especially in an age of catch phrase political campaigns (Tim Eyman anyone?).
Which is why I think we should stop telling everyone it’s their responsibility to vote. If you don’t care enough to A) Educate yourself on what your voting for and B) Take the time on your own accord. You shouldn’t vote. Nineteen year olds are plenty smart enough to make intelligent decisions, and realistically they’d probably change elections in a direction I’d like, but if they are too busy playing Guitar Hero to know anymore about Obama-McCain than one’s the guy from that Will.I.Am video and the other one hangs out with the chick from Alaska, they shouldn’t vote.
I’m not advocating any changes in rules on who can vote, and I think we should make it as easy as possible to register, I just think it’s time for celebrities, ministers and PE teachers to stop running around telling people to vote. Anyone got an argument against?
PS. I was about to put a link to a site to register on here, but decided anyone who doesn’t care enough to Google shouldn’t be allowed at the polls.
PPS. I should have added that all the energy currently put into telling people to vote should (in my opinion) should be shifted towards encouraging people to learn about issues. If someone cares about issues someone will be more likely to vote, and vote based on what is important.
Following A Conversation About School
Uncomfortable silence.
Me: Nothing kills a party like talking about statistics.
The WFS Vice Presidential Debate Drinking Game
Based on unscientific, anecdotal observations I’ve made, if your planning on watching the vice presidential debate, you probably already know who your voting for. If you care enough to watch you probably already know about as much as you will in November about these knuckleheads. So why not get drunk while you watch?
Since WFS is doing all we can to help people come together, this will be bi-partisan, so get together roughly equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats. If your in the midwest or northeast this might be difficult, so get to Ohio as fast as you can. Below our the comments that will alow your party to hand out drinks to the opposing party, intended for 3 people on each side. Multiply by X/3 where X is the number of persons on each side to properly get your debatin’ drink on. The republicans should have bud light with shots of Jack Daniels on hand in honor of the good Governor, democrats, stock up on Sam Adams and your favorite elitist Scotch.
- Sarah Palin says ‘hocky’ or ‘mom’ dems give out 3
- Joe Biden says recession, GOP gives out 3
- Sarah Palin says ‘hockey mom’ dems give out 9
- Joe Biden says quagmire, GOP gives out 9
- Joe Biden states (again) that Barak Obama will personally hunt down and kill Osama Bin Laden, GOP give out two shots.
- Sara Palin mentions health care when asked about the economy, Dems give out one shot.
- Talking heads compare Joe Biden to Catie Curic, everyone drinks one.
- Sarah Palin says “I’ll get right back to ya.” Dems give out three.
- Joe Biden mentions his experience in any way, GOP gives six.
- Sarah Palin makes a statement that in no way relates to the question asked (must be agreed on by both sides, and remember to play nice) Dems give out 9.
- Biden mentions Palin’s daughter, GOP give out one.
- Palin mentions Palin’s daughter, Dems give out 9.
So there you go, have fun, drink responsibly, vote responsibly.
WFS Inspirational Quoate of the Day
“Alas for those who turn their eyes from zebras and dream of dragons! If we cannot learn to take joy in the merely real, our lives shall be empty indeed.” — Eliezer S. Yudkowsky.
There ARE Stupid Questions
During a certain point in a persons education, they should be encouraged to asks any questions that pop into their always shifting grey matter. Maybe, that should never change, but at some point, probably in the first two years of college, teachers should be allowed to answer certain questions with “You should review the prerequisites for this course” and continue on with their lesson.
The thing is, if you are sitting in a college class that consists of mostly graduate students, you should realize that everyone is paying good cash money to be there, and most of the class is reasonably intelligent. Consider how much of your classmates money is being wasted when you ask the question that leads to the professor telling you to review chapter one. And if you still ask the question, cut yourself off question wise. Maybe think about whether you should even be in the room.
Curly haired lady in stats 510, I’m looking at you. I’m sure there is a fine intro to statistics class at SDSU, the class number starts with a one, not a five. If you still need an explanation of variance you can get it there.
