Unofficial Election Results

I was one of 2,255 voters in this wack ass election. 8% of the registered voters came out. I think the 3 people I voted for won. Democracy is lame, even when it's on the march.

A wack morning for democracy

It's 5:30 AM in St. Louis. In half an hour, I'm going to the polls to vote in what I am willing to wager will be the wackest election of my life. I usually don't vote in the lame elections, but I woke up this morning at 1AM and haven't gone back to sleep. I slept all evening, because I was up most of the night sunday night finishing up a paper.

Also, as the kind of jerk that crosses the country for democracy, to not walk halfway down the block to vote would be embarassing.

But what is there to vote for? you might ask. I was curious as well. I checked the web page. Holy shi'ite, is this a wack election. Click on the link above to take a look at the ballot I'll be facing in 25 minutes. Freedom and democracy are truly on the march. I can't wait to see the look on the faces of the election workers when I'm there waiting as the polls open.

Same As It Ever Was

"Washington has now lost three straight, six of seven, and has not won since Sept. 28, 1971. We have not won since Joe Grzenda pitched three innings of one-hit relief as the Senators pounded out 10 hits to beat Stan Bahnsen and the Yankees, 4-2."

We'll end the streak soon. Until then, though, it's nice just to have another reason to hate the Vet in Philly.

TV deal partners Orioles, Nationals

The 90%/10% split might just be an april fools day prank, but I don't think so.

The upshot of the O's having all the risk on this is that TV networks like this have failed in the past. And if this deal, as it plays out, truly looks like a stinker, then DC's fans, as the larger market, can sink the network in an instant by refusing to watch. A boycott of the network called by any of the DC sportswriters could sink the zeppelin pretty quickly, and although Angelos might try to sue every resident of the city of DC individually, I doubt that he'd get too far with that. (I'm reminded of an old Mr. Show bit about Coupon: The Movie, where a movie studio successfully sued all of America for not watching their crappy movie.)

Notes on grokster oral arguments

One of the first bits of fallout from Grokster, says Timothy Armstrong, is that you will always be able to rip your CDs legally for use on other devices:

How, some of the Justices asked MGM, could the inventors of the iPod (or the VCR, or the photocopier, or even the printing press) know whether they could go ahead with developing their invention? It surely would not be difficult for them to imagine that somebody might hit upon the idea of marketing their device as a tool for infringement.

MGM’s answer to this was pretty unsatisfying. They said that at the time the iPod was invented, it was clear that there were many perfectly lawful uses for it, such as ripping one’s own CD and storing it in the iPod. This was a very interesting point for them to make, not least because I would wager that there are a substantial number of people on MGM’s side of the case who don’t think that example is one bit legal. But they’ve now conceded the contrary in open court, so if they actually win this case they’ll be barred from challenging “ripping” in the future under the doctrine of judicial estoppel.

SCOTUSblog: MGM v. Grokster: Background and Analysis

Happy Grokster day.

Click the link above to get some background while watching an old episode of ALF on your Betamax VCR.

Who likes maths?

Go see my friend Ed give a math lecture:

In the unlikely event that you find yourself in western Massachusetts this Wednesday, come check out my talk about the concept of duality in projective geometry.

WHERE?: Lederle Graduate Research Tower, Room 1521D, UMass Amherst

WHEN?: Wednesday, March 30, 2005, 7:00 p.m.

WHAT?: Projective geometry is a non-Euclidean geometry where there is no such thing as parallel lines, and no concept of distance or angle measure. Duality is a valid concept of projective geometry where points and lines are mathematically indistinguishable from each other. This is cool because if you prove a theorem, it can be dualized to give you a new theorem that will be true (unless the theorem is self-dual to begin with)! It's like a 2-for-1 sale on mathematical concepts.

Happy Easter

from our friends in FLA protesting the rule of law....

Win or Lose (washingtonpost.com)

"Yet another franchise came along in 1901, now in the American League. This time, Washington did something we had never done before: signed a bona fide star still near the peak of his powers. Ed Delahanty was a strapping, square-jawed slugger, the best hitter of his day. An esteemed authority on baseball history, Bill James, has compared Delahanty to the seemingly incomparable Joe DiMaggio. The man batted .346 over 16 seasons. He once went 9 for 9 in a double-header.

But after just one full season in Washington, Big Ed started drinking even more heavily than usual. Suspended from the team during a trip to Detroit, he boarded a train for home. Blotto, he brandished a straight razor at other passengers. The conductor stopped the train near the Canadian border and dumped Delahanty trackside. Our star went reeling into the night, plunged from the International Bridge into the Niagara River, washed over Niagara Falls, and was pureed by the propeller of a sightseeing boat."

Breakpoints the official blog of the botz

just so you know, the robots are back.

Hunter S. Thompson v. Richard M. Nixon v. DJ Buck Wheaton

So here's the psychedelic disaster. It's in two parts.

Part One
Part Two

Enjoy it. Like I said, listen to it in a dark room, alone.

hot hot heat

yes they're canadian but they're stand up fellows and they know how to trash a hotel room. this is a link to a page with a new mp3 from a new album. it's really poppy and I'm not sure how I feel about it, which along with singer steve bay's growing gheri curls gets me worried, but hopefully there'll be some rockers on the rest of the album.

DURKL

the clothes are aight but the song is absolutely off the chain. buy something.

Comments

The old comments system seems to have died, so this is a test of a new one.

Skype

Do any of you use this thing? If you don't know it's free voice phone calls over the internet. I just called someone who didn't have a mic, and she could hear me while I talked to my computer.

It felt strange and dirty in a futuristic sort of way.

If you're on skype, and I know you, holler at your boy: skypename: derekteslik.