Some very cool cartograms show the misleading nature of the standard red-vs-blue map by increasing and decreasing size based on electoral-college votes and county-level returns population. For example, this one:
Note the San Francisco Bay Area has enough voting weight to become easily recognizable on this map, an outsized West-Coast carbuncle. You’ll want to click through and see all the maps and commentary.
Getting from both ends
The state funded Great Britain team has (by perception) done extremely well at the London 2012 Olympics. As a consequence (?) there are calls amongst politicians and sports bureaucrats to make competitive sport compulsory for children.
The state funded Australia team has (by perception) done extremely badly at the London 2012 Olympics. As a consequence (?) there are calls amongst politicians and sports bureaucrats to make competitive sport compulsory for children.
Let us hope they don’t get it in both ends.
There’s a reason so many ’70s kids ran around with a Steve Austin doll glued to one eye.* The emphasis in this story is on the benefits for the blind, but the implications of “cracking the code” the brain uses to interpret images from the retina are far greater, of course.
Versatile vision is fun. My vision, uncorrected, is so bad that one of my eyes actually magnifies images. It’s a fun parlor trick, but it’s actually turning out to be useful to be so nearsighted as I’ve aged. Aging sucks if you like to read, kids, because, you progressively lose the ability to focus on things within reach of your arms. And as much as I read, if I get tired of holding the book/Kindle waaaaaaay out there, with my natural nearsightedness I can just pop off the glasses or contacts and voila! I can hold the book as little as an inch away from my face if I want and still focus like a champ.
Versatile vision, even as annoying as mine, is fun enough that I can guarantee there’s going to be a market for modular eyes — one set for near, one for far, one for night vision, one for stargazing — you get the idea.
*Our parents wouldn’t buy us binoculars?
Or is it “Tweets”?
If you’re asking me, it should be Twits, because twits.
A Michigan police officer says he’s not deterred by the negative reaction caused by his letter to a Calgary newspaper.
Walt Wawra wrote in a letter to the Calgary Herald editor that he wished he had a gun on a recent trip to Calgary.
The veteran officer said he was on a walk with his wife at Nose Hill Park when they were approached by two “aggressive” men.
“They said to me: ‘Hey, have you been to the Stampede yet?’ And my wife and I both looked at him, and we ignored that first comment,†Wawra said.
“They moved a little closer and they said a little louder: ‘Hey! Have you been to the Stampede yet?’ I believe I said in response: ‘Gentlemen, I don’t have need to talk to you about anything. Goodbye.’â€
The man said he felt uncomfortable without his off-duty hand gun, and wrote that “in Canada, only the criminals and the police carry handguns.”
On Twitter, the letter was the butt of jokes. It even spawned its own hash tag: #NoseHillGentlemen.
If those canucks enjoy being treated as though they are irresponsible children by their government, that is up to them and that is fine with me. Just so long as they keep their twits north of the border.
Sorry, non-Americans.
In the same week, even!
I am both happy and perplexed at Romney’s choice of Ryan.
On the one hand, I am happy that he didn’t choose a few of the others off the list of potentials (McDonnell, Santorum, and Pawlenty, just to name a few).
On the other, I am hoping that Ryan isn’t too damaged by the left and the media (but I repeat myself) and their constant attacks over his budget that doesn’t even begin to cut enough fat from the federal pig. The whole “Pushing Granny off the Cliff” with his proposed changes to Medicare/Medicaid might make it hard for Romney to snatch up the 55+ crowd that usually votes for the (R) candidates.
However, none of the above changes my plans to wait and see what his chances are like in Washington State. If he has no chance of beating Obama here, then I am still going to vote 3rd Party and try to help pump up their numbers. But if he is within a couple points and stands a decent chance to get our electoral college votes, I will bite that bitter pill and pull the virtual lever for him and Ryan.
I may extend my “couple points” to “a few points”, but that is about it. But that is saying something, because he currently is within a few points of being “within a few points”. So we’ll see.
Used to be the most Hollywood’s stars could aspire to was a “tenure” slot at one of the major studios.
Then things changed. A lot.
Apparently, that cost is $612,000 plus lawyer’s billable hours.
Federal prosecutors say a deal has been reached to drop the criminal case against Gibson Guitar Corp. after the instrument maker acknowledged its exotic wood imports violated environmental laws.
Under the agreement announced Monday, Nashville-based Gibson is to pay a $300,000 penalty. The company also agreed to forfeit claims to about $262,000 worth of wood seized by federal agents and contribute $50,000 to promote conservation of protected tree species.
The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gibson’s decision to cooperate with federal laws banning the import of endangered wood products stands in contrast to a 2011 publicity campaign mounted after agents raided Gibson facilities in Memphis and Nashville.
Republicans and tea party members rallied behind CEO Henry Juszkiewicz (JUS’-kuh-wits) when he denounced the raids as overzealous federal regulation that threatened American jobs.
That’s what you get for not supporting the “right” political party in an Obamanation.
I hope folks like Baked Maple fretboards, since Gibson probably won’t be importing any Rosewood for a while (aka: After January 20th, 2013 or 2017).
I’ve been spending too much time drooling over at Fretted Americana, where the average car costs less than the average six-stringed instrument.
Like this 1958 Gibson Les Paul Custom
For only the low, low price of $49,500 you can call it yours.
Much want!
If you’d like more Phil X, here is a video for his band, The Drills, playing “I Wish My Beer was as Cold as Your Heart”
Enjoy!
You all remember the raid done by the Obamanation Bureaucracy wherein the government raided the Gibson factory in Nashville, TN so as to protect jobs in India, right?
OK, if not, watch this piece by Reason.TV
Now that we’re all caught up, I have been watching the equipment demonstrations done by Rob Chapman and Lee Anderton for Anderton’s Music Company in Guildford, England. They’re funny and informational and they fulfill my “guitarnerd” cravings.
Here, “Chappers” and “the Captain” demo two new Gibson Les Paul’s with fretboards made of Maple. Baked Maple, to be exact, which has very similar properties to Rosewood normally used on modern Les Paul models.
We make fun the Brits, and they make fun of the US in this vid because of the ridiculousness of what the Obama Justice Department did. If I wasn’t in the US and thinking of purchasing a Les Paul, it might be funny to me as well.
Enjoy the vids. I’ll probably post more from these guys and others I’ve discovered recently in the future.
