It is pretty amzing that marketing people can focus in so tightly on who whatches what on TV. And I always knew there was something funny about Everybody Loves Raymond.

But, what does that say about me? My favorite shows: The Simpsons, Law & Order, Malcolm in the Middle and Enterprise.

Man, I am really a nerd.

This is pretty cool. One thing I hate about desktop computers is how much space they take up. Apple is doing a lot to address that. I like it.

It turns out that getting a full body CT scan is not such a good idea:

The radiation dose from a full-body CT scan is comparable to the doses received by some of the atomic-bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Yipes!

We all thought that Kevin Smith was done with the Clerks series. I guess we all thought wrong.

Check this out. There is a lightbulb in Livermore, CA that has been burning for 103 years. That gives me a reason to go to Livermore.

Kerry did an interview on the Daily Show. The best quote in the article:

You'd be amazed at the number of people who want to introduce themselves to you in the men's room. It's the most bizarre part of this entire thing.

Slate article about the new vaulting equipment that is being used in the Olympic gymnastics competition. Jason and I were wonder what was going on, and this article answers the question.

A neat website that shows how the last few presidental elections would have ended up if the entire coutry used the Maine-Nebraska electoral vote method. Believe it or not, only one election of those shown would have gone the other way: the 1976 election would have gone to Ford. Maybe it is a good thing we don't use this method throughout the country.

Also, for your reference, from a Slate article just how Maine and Nebraska decide their electoral votes:

...Maine does not award all its electoral votes (there are four of them) to the presidential candidate who gets the most votes in the state. Instead, the candidate who wins the popular vote gets two electoral votes. The third electoral vote goes to the candidate who wins the popular vote in the 1st Congressional District and the fourth electoral vote to whoever wins the 2nd.

Great Scott, Marty! You can build your own hoverboard.

A story about a church that denied a child communion to be valid beacuse the wafer didn't have gluten in it (the child is allergic). Evidently, the wine for communion has to have some alcohol in it, even when an AA member is taking communion. The child's mother makes a good point:

This is a church rule, not God's will, and it can easily be adjusted to meet the needs of the people, while staying true to the traditions of our faith.

Unfortunately, the church doesn't want its rules seen as traditions. It wants them see as the only true path to god. With the church thinking like that, there can be no bending of the rules.

Wicked small robot helicopter. I want one.

I bet he had one hell of a hangover.

A Slate follow-up on the Dairy Queen MooLatte. It is an interview with Dairy Queen's spokesman, Chad Durasa, conducted by Houston Press staff writers. It is a chuckle.

A collection of statements about Einstein from a number of scientific folk curtosey of Discover magzine and Russ.

Some kids pissed off some bees in CA. I guess it was one hell of a hive as:

The quarter-ton honeycomb, which may have accumulated inside the apartment wall for years, was so big it was threatening the structural integrity of the two-story building, Horner said.

Man, that is a lot of honey.

Man, I'd love to get the CBC broadcast of the Olympics. Bob Costas is one of the most annoying men next to Pat Sajak.

As you may have heard. The US basket ball team lost to Puerto Rico. Slate did an amusing converstion based on this fact, and left me to ponder this:

...now that the U.S. is getting whipped by commonwealths, it'll be ugly when they play a legit nation-state like Argentina.

Very good text to speach conversion demo made by AT&T.

Mike seems to be the best voice.

I like this pic of Kerry jumping a Jersey barrier. It is amazing what men without prostates can do these days.

It is odd that this short CNN article mentions twice that the robbers didn't take any candy. I am not sure what I am supposed to take away from that. Are these robbers honorable because they didn't take any candy? Or were they stupid because they broke in and had all that candy available to them, but only took the cash?

I end up being left to draw my own conclusions.

Interesting research at MIT:

Men with "front vowels" in their names -- sounds formed at the front of the mouth like the "a" in Matt -- were considered sexier than men with "back vowel" sounds like the "au" in Paul, she concluded.

The opposite held for women, who were sexier with back vowels than front ones.

I have 3 vowel sounds in my name. I wonder where that puts me.

An argument in Slate against the Electoral College. This is one place I didn't expect to see this. Usually these arguments are put out in the editoral sections of weekly papers.

Keeewl. Improb.com now has a blog.

What a strange coinsidence:

'King Kong's Fay Wray Dies, Empire State Bldg. Lights Go Dim

This type of party was prevelent at my dorm. I can understand the desire to be close, but the people who were involved in the dorm tended to be scuzzy. Scuzzy people scare me.

Ah, yes. Our Commander and Chief.

An article in Slate about how Bush isn't looking foward as looking back. When it comes down to it, people know what he's done, it is what he is going to do that voters care about. Plus:

As much as liberals dislike President Bush's record over the past four years, it's the prospect of another four years that terrifies them.

This sounds like a cool job. I don't think I am mirthful enough for the position. ;)

Interesting observation about SUV and their weight.

As it stands now, big-SUV drivers have it both ways: They use their trucklike status when it benefits them, yet they ignore the more onerous restrictions that 'real' truck drivers face.

What are these restrictions? Many roads have restrictions for vehicles over 6000. The largest SUVs easily top that. Boy, it would be awesome if cops started pulling those over.