Your iPhone hates Obama

WhiteHouse? Didn't you mean Whorehouse? Why no, actually I didn't!
I was typing a message about Obama's recent speech to a friend via Facebook on my iPhone yesterday and the spelling auto-corrected in a very interesting way. What does Steve Jobs really think of the executive branch?

Maverick

The term "Maverick" is coined after Samuel Maverick, an early Texas politician. Maverick was a POW of the Mexican army for a period. He is most well-known for steadfastly refusing to brand his cattle. As a result, the word maverick entered the English lexicon, meaning both an unbranded range animal as well as a slang term for someone who exhibits a streak of stubborn independence. Maverick's stated reason for not branding his cattle was that he didn't want to inflict pain on them. Other ranchers, however, suspected his true motivation was that it allowed him to collect any unbranded cattle and claim them as his own.

So Maverick was an old southwestern politician, former POW, who acted erratically and used his unpredictability to take credit for that which was not his? John McCain may be a true Maverick after all.

The Best McCain Analysis EVER

Things are sure gonna be different.... Jon Stewart makes clear the similarities and differences between the candidates and President Bush. Maverick? I think not. In perhaps the best Daily Show ever, a real analysis of what the McCain presidency would look like... From McCain's own mouth.

Dick Cheney Knew All Along

Dick Cheney appears to have known exactly what a disaster the Iraq war would be... and then decided to go ahead anyway. This is him in 1994 describing why further military action in Iraq would be a "quagmire".

Revenge on the Direct Junkmail Companies

A lot of people complain about getting SPAM in their email inbox. Yes, it's a hassle, it wastes CPU cycles and as a result, electricity... but there's not a whole lot that can be done other than blacklisting and lawsuits. A few major ISP companies are promoting a system of micropayments: How this would work is for every email over 10,000 that you send in a week-- you have to pay 1/100 of a cent to your ISP, email provider, etc. For most of us-- we'd never have to pay a cent. For major spammers that send out tens of millions of emails daily... this adds up fast.
Sounds like a brilliant and novel idea: Make SPAM not financially worthwhile to the SPAMmer. But how would this system translate to traditional paper-junkmail? Paper junkmail is in many ways worse because of the physical environmental costs of producing the paper, printing, running the machines to design and distribute, etc. So how do you combat direct-junkmail? Mail them a brick... at their expense.

When the President Talks to God

This is a song called "When the President Talks to God" by Bright Eyes. I'm also including the lyrics here for the Deaf peeps that visit this blog.

Awareness Test

This is pretty great. And makes a point.

Be Careful

We're all guilty of this little game...
but it's all fun & games until someone's head is actually crushed.

A Study in Reeces PB: Chocolate Ratio

These guys did a rough study investigating the proportion of peanut butter to chocolate in various sizes of Reeces Peanut Butter Cups. I couldn't disagree with their opinion more (that smaller cups taste the best). I personally think the Reeces Big Cup has the superior ratio. But prefer the small cups to the regular size. My version of this graph would look more like an inverted parabola. Anyway, it's funny that they took the time to set up this pseudo-scientific study. I'm currently fasting from chocolate... so this was on my mind.

Ballot Problem in Maryland

I went to vote in the Primary election in Maryland today. I just changed registration from another state, so I had to fill out a provisional ballot. All went well, until it was time to sign the provisional voter form... above the signature line was a statement stating:

"I swear or attest that I will not vote in the current or General election in Maryland or in another state"

I imagine this is supposed to state that i will not vote again in the current election. But that's not what it says. This is a problem.

Medication Side Effects

I always find the concept of medication "side effects" as interesting. Why? Because neurobiology doesn't recognize the difference between target and "side" effects. We just market the effects that are potentially helpful. Many useful medications were discovered when "side effects" of other meds were realized to be helpful. Welbutrin and Viagra are just a couple of these. One of the following clips are about real (albeit bizzare) side effects and one is fake. Guess which is which.

Virtual Magnetic Bush Speech Poetry

Make your own George W Bush speech with virtual W. It's like Magnetic Poetry, but a cognitively-impaired chimp of a President reads it aloud.

Mine reads:

"America stands committed to conflict. We squandered lives on a massive scale, destroyed Iraq. We created persistant poverty and suffering, defended violent ambitions, including my own... So that above all, one day the ladies and gentlemen in the United States will fear government."

See what Bush speech you can make!

Fishermen Find Deer Swimming 1.5 Miles Offshore

According to this story, some fishermen were out on the seas about 1.5 miles offshore and spotted what they thought was a seal. As they got closer, they realized it was a deer lost at sea. Naturally, they pulled the animal aboard and brought it back to dry land. Of course, my evil Bulgarian friend in Canada supposes that they had actually taken a deer from the woods, took it out to sea, threw it in the ocean, and posted the photos in reverse order to make themselves look like heroes. What do you think?

Beware the Double Dipper

What we've always known... is now confirmed by science. Double-dipping is pretty nasty. A Clemson University study confirms this. But the best part of all about this article is the caption under the photo. It reads "This photo illustration shows tortilla chips and salsa in New York". Thanks for the clarification from the AP. :)