Last night (25 November, 2008) saw me lose some amount of respect for Alex Trebek. One clue in the Double Jeopardy round amounted to asking for another name of “low-grade marble”. One person guessed “granite”. Obviously wrong. No one else guessed. The answer, Alex announced, was “limestone”, and then indicated that “granite, of course, is [...]

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This November, California offers its residents twelve delectible ballot measures for their approval or rejection or apathy. Here they are, what the Dems say, what the Repubs say, and what I say.
1A: High speed trains. D: Yes, R: No.
A definite boon to California’s infrastructure. As someone who travels between San Francisco and Los Angeles a [...]

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These pictures are taken with a small digital camera looking through modest binoculars. Using the binoculars with the eye, sharp detail on the surface of the moon can be made out and the moons of Jupiter are easily seen when at large elongation. I have tried to capture these with the digital camera.
The setup consists [...]

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In case you did not watch the debate tonight (and honestly I tuned most of it out), I am honor-bound to tell you about what turned out to be the most entertaining part of it. Senator John McCain, self-proclaimed earmark maverick, accused Barack Obama of being completely immersed in the pork-barrel culture of Washington. Specifically, [...]

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O.J. Simpson, the one-time Heisman-winning, Hall of Fame footballer, was found guilty of a plethora of charges related to an armed burglary and kidnapping in Las Vegas, and could spend the rest of his life in prison. This comes 14 years after allegedly killing his wife and a friend of hers. A jury found him [...]

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I, as I’m sure many people are, am very pleased that young children are being encouraged to participate in the political process. For 3rd graders, extra credit is a great way to do that. But for the rest of us it is not. Engagement in the political process should not be seen as something extra, [...]

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I’m all in favor of buying in bulk. And I’ve seen this one for many years but it’s never struck me until now. Family-size shampoo bottles. Calling a product whose sole use is in the shower “family-size” is disturbingly suggestive.

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Before my morning reading the New York Times was rudely interrupted by a fire alarm in the dining hall (and it’s been raining outside, go figure), I read two articles that highlight the ever-political nature of space exploration.
The first describes China’s launching three astronauts (or “taikonauts“) for a three-day mission, primarily to perform the first Chinese [...]

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I highly recommend that you read this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/education/08students.html
I will summaraize some of the key points. There is historically and currently some controversy over students voting in the state of their university instead of their home state. Some students have been scared away by government statements saying that registering to vote in the state of their university [...]

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