Oh Patty, Patty Patty Patty

George Nethercutt's new ad for the senate race in my home state of Washington is going to tighten up the race a bit. It shows Patty Murray talking up Osama. Bad move. But who knew there was video?!

Electoral College Time

As November approaches and the debates loom, it seems like a good time to remind everyone that the national polls coming out daily don't matter much. Bush could drop 10 points in some national poll on Friday, but unless Kerry sees some serious movement in his direction in Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, etc, this thing is over. If you need to get your electoral college fix, I advice the ECB. Get the RSS feed and obsess.

Conan is the Next Host of the Tonight Show

A while back Ben posted on the difficult position Conan was in - Jay seemed locked-in forever, Conan wanted the 11:30 spot, but he wanted to stay loyal to NBC. Plus, there were questions about how well Conan's 18-25/12:30 AM focus would translate at 11:30 (though people said the same thing about Letterman). Well, NBC made the right choice. 11:30 will definitely be weird for Conan, but I think without some career advancement he was going to quit. We can't have that. Plus, the switch isn't happening until 2009, so by that time, Conan (and his audience) will all be old enough for primetime anyway.

My Girlfriend Is Smart

The blog Agoraphilia came up with this puzzle:

Using only a coin, how can you generate a probability equal to exactly one-third?

Here’s more context, if you feel the need for it:

Suppose you want to vacation at the beach, mountains, or desert. You want to choose your destination randomly, with equal chances for all three outcomes. Your only randomization device is a coin. What should you do?

Lauren and I talked about this for a while last night. I came up with some simple-minded ideas, but she came up with The Answer (or at least the most "elegant" Answer). Apparently recognizing infinite series isn't in my skill set. I'll live, I guess.

Shocking Revelation

Instapundit links to a polling site, which notes that Wonkette is, in fact, a statistics nerd. The polling site, in turn, links to a George Mason profile of Wonkette. Here's the profile:

Ana Marie Cox is the editor of Wonkette.com, a many-times-daily updated compendium of Washington D.C. news, gossip, and satire. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago and was a Mellon Fellow of the Humanities at the University of California, Berkeley.

I guess Wonkette and Cass Sunstein have more in common than I thought.

10,000 Hits

Awesome. Thanks for reading.

The Dangers of Counterprotesting

AP



Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards (news - web sites) made a brief stop at the airport as he concluded his two-day bus tour to locations in West Virginia and Ohio. (AP Photo/Randy Snyder)

Editorial comment: that's not nice!

Ichiro In NYT

My personal MVP choice has a feature on him in the New York Times today. Be sure to check out the "multimedia" pictures.

1972 Email Casts Doubt on Bush Guard Service

Scrappleface

Says it all, doesn't it?

Virtual gaming worlds overtake Namibia

BBC News

Namibians don't seem too concerned about it, if the picture in the article is any indication.

By the way, a while ago I wondered if the public (or at least public intellectuals) would start noticing the social impact of MMOGs. Here's your answer.

John Kerry's Office Plan

Wonkette's secret copy can be seen here. Observation: Howard Dean seems dangerously close to People Who Will Come and Take Your Guns Away. And who knew the Gang of 500 were more than just Kerry's inner circle?

The Power and Politics of Blogs at the APSA

Two Chicago profs (including Cass) and Wonkette on the same panel - need I say more? Read a summary here. (from Intapundit)

Registration/Judgment Day

Today is the first day of registration at Chicago. Unlike past years, I now must choose my classes very carefully. This is it. If I don't take tax now, I guarantee I will never know anything about tax for the rest of my life. Consequently, I might innocently avoid some taxes, and innocently fail to disclose other taxable income, and might innocently be sent to straight to federal prison. If I ignore Criminal Procedure, I can kiss being a U.S. Attorney goodbye. And if Admiralty law and Patents continue to conflict on my schedule, my dreams of patenting an indestructible dock, and thus making Levmore's "the rule doesn't matter" theory of Ploof and Vincent moot, will be shattered (like the dock). If I don't take Judge Posner or Judge Easterbrook for something, they'll never know me, and thus won't recommend me to fill in their vacant seat on the 7th Circuit. And if I don't take a class with That Kid Who Is Going to Be President (whoever that may be), then I won't become his or her best friend and thus The Kid won't listen to the judges' recommendations anyway. Not that my history of tax evasion didn't already seal the deal.

The point being: registration isn't just about your classes, it's about your future.

U.S. Says It Won't Remove Dams

Washington Post

I read this headline twice, and both times mistook "Dams" for "Dems." It's clearly an election year.

But either way, I'm glad the U.S. keeps all of its options on the table.