Les Actualités

Je suis dans l'école français de la Université du Middlebury pour 7 semaines. Donc, je toujours lis beaucoup les journaux français.

Selon Le Monde, le chef de la magistrature d'Angleterre a dit que le loi charia peut être un part de la loi de son pays. Ça m'intéresse moins. Ce que m'intéresse c'est le photo:


Cet un homme sérieux?

An Awesome Birthday Present

Dear America:

Thank you for the awesome birthday present. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but if I could ask one thing it would be that you continue these trends through November.

Love,
J

(allof the following are courtesy of pollster.com, the best way for a news-obsessed junkie to procrastinate)

American Research Group

New Hampshire
Obama 51, McCain 39

Florida
Obama 49, McCain 44

Public Policy Polling (D)

Virginia
Obama 47, McCain 45
Sen: Warner (D) 59, Gilmore (R) 28

Zogby/Reuters

National
Obama 47, McCain 42

Quinnipiac University

Florida
Obama 47, McCain 43

Ohio
Obama 48, McCain 42

Pennsylvania
Obama 52, McCain 40

Best Research Tool Ever.

...And I do emphasize tool.

Apparently researchers at Duke's Fuqua School of Business (a great GSB name, by the way) have done a study on the connection between seeing corporate logos for intervals short enough so that they make a subliminal impression, and creativity. The Cult of Mac blog reports:

The researchers conducted a number of experiments, one of which was showing the logos for fractions of a second to create a subliminal impression, and in all cases those who’d seen the Apple logo scored higher on standardized creativity tests than those who’d seen the IBM logo or no logos at all.

Let me just repeat this. People who see an Apple logo do better on standardized tests of creativity. Standardized tests of creativity. If anyone can explain to me how you quantify creativity, push those quantities into a bell curve, and do a standard deviation analysis of those quantified creativities please let me know.

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Now playing: Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science
via FoxyTunes

Operation Smile and Hope

No, the title of this post is not Barack Obama's campaign slogan for next week. Al Jazeera is reporting that it the actual military codename for deployment of Palestinian national security forces in Jenin.

You know you're dealing with a brutal occupation when the deployment of national guardsmen is a cause for smile and hope. But of course:

Israel has emphasised that "ultimate security responsibility will remain in Israel's hands"

Let's start a baseless conspiracy!

One of these guys is the leader of the terrorist group Hizb'alla. The other is a successful Hollywood actor who has appeared on the cover of People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive issue multiple times. Can you tell who is who?

I'm just saying. Email your friends.

Lies! Damn Lies and Statistics!

As an avid reader of the news, I've recently taken to following the constant train of polls on this election. Now polling is tricky. Some polls, like the national McCain v. Obama or McCain v. Clinton polls are certainly meaningless at this point in the election. And other polls that should have been meaningful, like the NH and IA polls, just plain sucked. But at least they sucked consistently. What drves me nuts is the polls coming out of PA. For those of you not quite as crazy as I am on this, here is a rundown of the last few days of polling in PA, courtesy of pollster.com (the table is date/ sample size/ Clinton/ Obama/ undecided):

InsiderAdvantage	4/8/08	681 LV	48	38	13
PPP (D)	4/7-8/08	1124 LV	46	43	11
Rasmussen	4/7/08	730 LV	48	43	9
SurveyUSA	4/5-7/08	597 LV	56	38	2
ARG	4/5-6/08	600 LV	45	45	6

So let's see Clinton is up by 10 points, 3 points, 5 points, 18 points, or not at all. Now look: I'm as big of a fan of the margin of error as anyone. But these are absurd! Especially since the "undecided" column really doesn't differ that much between the tied poll and the 18 point lead poll, nor between the ten and three point poll.

I think maybe all of Pennsylvania is just fucking with us. Like they had a big meeting and they said: "hey y'all. Know what would be hella-tight? If, like, a fifth of the state decided to answer pollster's questions differently just for the hell of it. That'll keep 'em guessing!"

(So I don't know what PA slang is like. So what?).

Stupid argument #219

It's time to address an argument that seems to be growing increasingly common. I first remember hearing this argument in the wake of 9/11. I thought it would go away, but it unfortunately seems to have implanted itself firmly in common discourse by now.

I'm on the (Dis)HonestReporting listhost. Why? Because I'm a masochist mostly. In their latest 'communique,' HR made exemplified this brilliant argument:

While freedom of speech requires a degree of responsibility that is sometimes lacking in blogs, reputable news services are compelled to comply with much higher standards.

Freedom of speech requires a degree of responsibility, eh? Let me consult with my favorite constitutional expert, Ice-T: