Moving to Another Site

Since I'm losing my Wideopenwest account, this blog will now be transferred to http://myweb.dal.ca/vkeating. Please update your links.

All election, all the time

Well, the media is in a frenzy about the campaign, and we're still three months away from actually voting. A sample of the coverage: Slate examines how Bush's tax cuts might be working against him in the form of lots of DNC donations by rich Democrats, talks about why we should get rid of the electoral college system, and then follows up with how the difference between Bush and Kerry can be summed up to the difference between Costco and Wal-Mart. On a separate but related note, Business Week ran a article showing how Costco's methods of paying employees adequate salaries is actually making them more competitive. Wal-Mart, on the other hand, has had more than its share of screwing over the working class (pdf) in recent years. The Campaign Desk overviews all the coverage on John McCain's relationship to the President. The CSM looks at how the committee that puts together the presidential debates is under attack by those who would like it to be non-partisan. As always though, The Onion's story on the Kerry campaign resounds with clarity and insight. A fellow blogger has examined what could be a nightmare scenario for the legitimacy of the current electoral system: a tie in the electoral college vote. In the Illinois Senatorial race, Alan Keyes has a little bit of ground to make up on Barack Obama, who according to the most recent poll leads him 67% to 28%. The full breakdown can be found here (PDF). It's not the end of the world for Mr. Keyes though, since the margin of error is 4% -- those numbers actually could be closer than they look, like 63% to 32% or something.

With Afghanistan's elections approaching, the short campaign time and current omnipresence of Hamid Karzai makes him likely to be the first elected President, even though he technically has 17 opponents. Meanwhile, reports have surfaced showing that the nature of al-Qaeda is rapidly changing, with a new generation of leaders filling the gaps of those either captured or killed. The Register reviews the latest 'intelligence find,' questioning the sophistication of the intelligence agencies.

Even with the support of the House of Representatives in America, the European Union has announced that it will not identify the atrocities being committed in Darfur as genocide. The government of Sudan has rejected calls for the African Union to deploy 2000 troops to prevent further conflict in the Darfur region.

Fighting continues in Iraq, with American forces storming the house of cleric al-Sadr on Thursday though he was not residing there at the time. In a move that could potentially destabilize relationships with the Iraqi populace, American forces are reportedly planning on a final assault to deal with the cleric's insurgents in the holy city of Najaf, while at the same time dealing with another uprising in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City. In Najaf, the Guardian reports that Sadr's men are waiting for what they see as martyrdom by American forces. Back home, the Washington Post does a mea culpa on its failure to question the WMD motive to attack Iraq.

The Olympics are coming up at the end of the week with the torch just now reaching the Acropolis, and a few interesting not run-of-the-mill stories have been published about it. First is one about how economists have a model predicting the number of medals each country should win based on various economic and social factors. The United States is expected to come out on top again, but many countries in the world are bridging the gap. Meanwhile Athens is busy in a last-minute attempt to 'clean-up' the city, which apparently means removing thousands of beggars and homeless people from streets.

In space, one of Hubble's instruments is out of order, illustrating the problems with the telescope's aging equipment. NASA has a piece of equipment on the ground that could make the necessary repairs, though it has yet to make any formal plans. Despite all of this, the Hubble still takes groundbreaking pictures.

Also:
- Because of the increasing prevalance of communication methods that don't leak radio waves into space, the chances for other extraterrestrial civilizations to find ours are diminishing.
- Cassini has detected 'superbolts' of lighting in Saturn's atmosphere.
- The Gravity Probe B testing a component of Einstein’s general relativity is about to begin its experiment.
- The first solar sailor is ready for it's inaugural flight.
- Computer models suggest that the spin of black holes cause observed violent jets of matter and energy to shoot out.
- Here is a program that lets you observe the effects of special relativity on the appearance of moving objects.
- Scientists have developed a new type of glass that will block infrared radiation once the room temperature reaches a certain point.
- A new microscope has been developed that allows biologists to look into living organisms deeper than they were previously able to.
- Researchers have discovered cancer 'stem cells' that continuously replenish leukemia tumours. It is believed that finding and killing these cells would greatly aid patients suffering from this condition.
- If that doesn't work though, there is an ancient native American treatment for cancer that appears to have a positive effect on patients.
- A recent study has shown that your name can make you slightly more (or less) sexy.
- Scientists have found a way to make slacker monkeys more productive.
- Doom 3 is out to critical acclaim as an example of where computer graphics technology is going, and already has people writing mods for it.
- The Blu-ray Disc Association has unveiled its new blue ray CD format, HD-DVD.
- An article on what it's like to live in Antarctica.
- Chess legend Bobby Fischer is looking to renounce his US citizenship. Slate takes us through the process on how to go about doing that.
- Muslims in Canada are looking to form a formal committee that would judge disputes between Muslims according to Sharia, or Islamic Law, leading to protests that it will infringe on the rights of women.
- Saudi Arabia's laws concerning upcoming municipal elections make it unclear as to whether women will be allowed to vote.
- Iran's upgrading of its missile systems is an indication of why missile-defence doesn't work.
- The Village Voice writes about the legal team set up to help protesters at the RNC convention.
- A judge holds a Time magazine journalist in contempt of court for not naming a unnamed source, sending shockwaves through the journalistic community.
- An article explaining what a 'buy' rating from a stock analyst actually means.
- The Acadian diaspora is meeting in Nova Scotia to celebrate their heritage.
- Oil prices continue to go through the roof, despite Saudi Arabia's commitment to produce more. Analysts see demand outpacing forecasts, which will only exacerbate the current problems.
- California has annulled all gay marriages that took place in San Francisco.
- The governor of New Jersey has resigned after declaring that he is gay and has had an extramarital affair with another man.
- The top 10 most literate American cities.
- When it comes to the cities with the best quality of life in the world though, Canada claims 4 out of the top 10 spots when cost-of-living is factored in.
- What exactly does Osama bin Laden actually want? Some journalists have bothered to find out.
- A list of the BBC's 'Interviews from Hell.'
- iPod vs cassette tape, a study.
- The Chipmunk Song, slowed down to a regular pace. (mp3)
- A landslide caught on tape.
- Hand-painted maps of the world, drawn from memory.
- A website dedicated to finding the most popular color combinations.
- A graph showing Bush's approval ratings to terror alerts.
- Stairway to Heaven, as done by different composers.
- A website that searches for rhymes to inputted words.
- Build a better Bush!
- Michael Moore scores another coup over George Bush, as his latest pick for the head of the CIA went on film for Mr. Moore explaining that he would not be qualified for the job.

Sorry

With the move back to Halifax and all, I've had very little time to publish in the last few weeks. I'll make sure to get back to it once all this gets sorted out.

The Week in Review

As the Democratic Convention came to a close last week, both candidates are now on the campaign trail, almost meeting in Iowa on Wednesday. Bush appears to be signaling the beginning of a month-long attack against now Democratic nominee John Kerry, whose better-than-expected delivery of his acceptance speech at the convention is seen to have given him a boost with the American public. Hopefully the Bush campaign will refrain from recent gaffs where a campaign worker stated that Americans dissatisfied with their low-quality jobs should either just go out and find new ones, or start taking Prozac. Bush himself has reversed a previous decision and decided to implement some of the recommendations of the 9/11 commission. Elsewhere in the Bush administration, the John Ashcroft's Justice Department has been caught asking libraries to destroy certain books, some of which are texts of federal statues, only to have it rescinded after the order went public.

The Homeland Security Department has issued a terror warning based on what they call specific and detailed bomb threats to financial institutions in the United States, apparently partially based on computer documents found during the arrest of a al-Qaeda suspect. However, it was discovered after the fact that most of the intelligence from this latest warning is actually several years old, leading to additional questions about the overall credibility of the department. The CSM looks at how the terror alert system seems to be working overall. The British, on the other hand, seem to be doing slightly better as of late in the "war on terror" after reports that they arrested an al-Qaeda leader.

In the Darfur region of Sudan, French troops have arrived in Chad to begin an aid mission to all of the refugees that fled there during the atrocities, which according to UN aid workers are still being committed. This is sparking fears in the international community of a new wave of refugees crossing into neighboring countries. The United Nations security council has given the Sudanese government a 30-day deadline to dismantle the Arab militias accused of carrying out the attacks and called for additional food aid from the international community. Sudanese marched in a government-organized protest against the United Nations resolution which they see as no more than a declaration of war. Despite the the government of Sudan's discontent with the resolution, it has agreed to double the security forces in Darfur to meet with international demands.

Also:
- NASA has formulated a 'wish list' for future studies into the origins of the universe.
- Studies on the planets orbiting neighboring stars have led astronomers to hypothesize that the structure of our solar system might be the exception, not the rule.
- NASA has also launched its latest probe, Messenger, that will be headed for Mercury.
- The Mars rovers are starting to break down, though they have already performed activities for twice as long a duration as they were designed for.
- Scientists have discovered that Mars may have had active volcanoes much more recently than previously thought.
- A new telescope being built by the University of Texas and Texas A&M is expected to have a definition 10 times the clarity of the Hubble Space Telescope.
- Acid rain, despite all of its negative effects, has been shown to decrease the rate of global warming.
- Women who believe that they will live a long life have a greater chance of giving birth to male children.
- Francis Crick, one of the pioneers of the double-helix structure of DNA, has died at 88.
- Aloe vera might have more uses than just treating sunburns, they are now being studied as a method to cope with massive blood loss on the battlefield.
- Vitamin pills might be good for you overall, but recent studies have found that they have little effect decreasing your risk of heart disease.
- Amazingly enough, having four to five bottles of wine a week might actually make your brain work better.
- The CSM looks into why oil prices might remain at record high prices.
- Several cities and town in California may have inadvertantly banned SUVs from many of their roads.
- Social mobility is on the decrease in America.
- A cleaned up version of a JFK assassination audio tape may shed some light as to whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
- A Wal-Mart in Quebec might be the first store in the chain to successfully unionize.
- The Vatican has issued a document condeming the 'lethal effects' of feminism on society.
- The 11th circuit court of appeals has upheld an Alabama ban on the sale of sex toys.
- Missouri has passed a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage.
- The 'father of photojournalism,' Henri Cartier-Bresson, has died at the age of 96.
- The Campaign Desk wonders why the major magazines don't follow the Economist's tactic of using actually important news as a cover story.
- In some much-needed good news for East Timor, a multi-billion dollar oil development project is underway that could revitalize the region's poorest nation.
- An interesting article on vocational training in Germany.
- Afghans, despite continuing threats of violence, are registering to vote in droves.
- The music industry in Canada is forcing dentists to pay licensing fees for the music they play in their offices, a move that might spread to the United States.
- New Zealand has captured a suspected Mossad agent who might have been using a falsified Canadian passport.
- Not satisfied with Air America, liberal activists are looking into creating their own news channel.
- All you could possibly want to know about error in polls.
- A website devoted to playing with time.
- Another website that deals with interesting results in math, after which you can learn about ethnomathematics.
- What the world apparently looks like to a fool.
- Portrats of different celebrities as if they had been painted by various masters.
- This website takes the subject lines from spam email and turns them into cartoons.
- First there was the subservient chicken, in 2004 we now have the subservient President.
- An independent ad for Kerry/Edwards that uses nothing but Bush's 2003 State of the Union address accompanied by pictures.