US Dollar Update

The Local.de

In currency related news today, there were protests in Germany as Mercedes-Benz considers moving production of the C-Class to the US. The cheaper US Dollar is a major factor in this decision, so let's take a look at my currency value predictions.

Benchmarks Achieved:
7 Swedish Krona > $1 US, Oct. 2009 (Correct!)
30 Russian Rouble > $1 US, Oct. 2009 (Correct!)
90 Yen > $1 US, Jul. 2010 (Wrong!) The Japanese Yen is soaring in value

Updated Benchmarks:
1 Australian Dollar > $1 US, Dec. 2009 (No change)
1 Swiss Franc > $1 US, Dec. 2009 (No change)
1 Canadian Dollar > $1 US, Jan. 2010 (One month later)
1100 Korean Won > $1 US, Jan. 2010 (One month later)
1.50 Brazilian Real > $1 US, Feb. 2010 (One month earlier)
1 NZ Dollar > $1 US, Apr. 2010 (One month later)
0.60 Euro > $1 US, Apr. 2010 (No change)

New Benchmarks:
13 Mexican Pesos > $1 US, Dec. 2009
6 Swedish Krona > $1 US, Feb. 2010
25 Russian Rouble > $1 US, May. 2010

Economic crisis hits the top 500

Top 500

Although Jaguar finally became the fastest computer, the change among the entire top 500 was rather low. The former fastest computer, Roadrunner, actually got slower, which is something I've never seen happen before. Whereas in previous lists, almost half the list would be new computers, there were only 165 new computers this time. Overall, this past six months, the overall FLOPS calculated by all 500 computers only increased 24%, the lowest increase since June 2006. The average is around 36%.

In theory I thought of to explain this slowdown came from an article I saw about Japan cutting funding to supercomputer programs. Albeit, only 16 computers on the list are Japanese, so by itself that wouldn't change much. However, it's likely that other countries have cut funding as well.

Still, 24% is not bad growth, Jaguar is now more powerful than all 500 supercomputers from June 2005 combined. BlueGene, which held the top spot for over 3 years is now 7th. While the epically named Earth Simulator built in 2002 would be 155th, if it were still listed.

Johnson's Chase to lose

With the win at Phoenix, Johnson is all but certain to win. Based on averages from this past year, there is no chance anyone else can win. However, based on current points Martin could still win the Chase if he wins this race and Johnson gets less than 22nd, or various other combinations wherein Johnson has to finish less than 22nd and Martin has to finish in the top 10.

Johnson does poorly for once

Johnson surprised everyone by crashing in the third lap at Texas, which hurt his scores, but Gordon and Martin didn't really capitalize on it like they should, so Johnson is still far and away the favorite.

Johnson - 91%
Gordon - 8%
Martin - 1%
Everyone else - 0%

The Appalachians almost ended life on Earth

Science Magazine

460 Million years ago when the Appalachians were being formed, they were lined with volcanoes that caused a global ice age that drove two-thirds of species to extinction.

Well, I guess that's it

Despite a 6th place finish, Johnson did so much better than the other chase drivers that he pretty much untouchable now. So current chances of winning:

Johnson - 98%
Gordon - 2%
Everyone else - 0%

Second Today

Well Johnson only got second place today, but he's still well on his way to winning the championship. A strange note on this race, the winner gets a grandfather clock. Johnson has won so often at this track that he has one in every room, so maybe today's loss was actually a calculated attempt to avoid receiving another clock without endangering his lead by losing to a driver that has no chance of winning the championship.

Johnson - 62%
Gordon - 16%
Stewart - 13%
Martin - 9%
Everyone else - 0%

Johnson Still Leading

Well, Johnson won the Charlotte race. Most of the Chase did pretty terribly, wiping out what little chance many of them had of winning the Championship. Kahne fought valiantly for a third place finish, but is still totally out of contention.

Johnson - 41%
Stewart - 19%
Gordon - 18%
Martin - 14%
Busch - 5%
Montoya - 3%
Everyone else - 0%

Another heat source

BBC

I'm pretty sure that I posted on here about a town in Sweden that used its crematory as a source of heat in the winter, but the "Search Blog" feature is crap. Well, now it's been revealed that there's a heating plant in central Sweden that uses rabbits.

LHC being thwarted by the future

NY Times

Fun article on the theory that maybe the Higgs boson doesn't want to be found and is causing events in the future that will keep the LHC from working correctly.

One-Hit Wonders

I got curious a few days ago about who were the greatest one-hit wonders. To determine this, I used Billboards Hot 100 Year-End chart. This insured that the songs were truly big hits when they came out. However, it did lead to a few oddities. Such as, using this standard makes the Dave Matthews Band a one-hit wonder despite being one of the best-selling acts. It's just that they tend to concentrate on album sells and don't push singles, so they don't really have individual hit songs. Also, Billboard Hot 100 only applies to success in the US. So someone like James Blunt, who is very successful in Europe, is merely a one-hit wonder in the US.

Top One-Hit Wonder that has a chance of making another hit (maybe)
Daniel Powter - Bad Day - 2006
Number one song of 2006, which explains why I heard it so much despite hating the song. Mr. Powter is the first solo Canadian male singer to top the Hot 100 since 1995, which I'm sure is important to someone. He is still recording music, and has released five more singles since "Bad Day". No hits yet, but I'm sure he's hoping for one just so he can be removed from this list and be replaced by James Blunt.

Top One-Hit Wonder more famous for something else
Los Del Rio - Macarena - 1996
So what exactly is more famous about the Macarena other than the song itself? If you didn't say "the dance", you're obviously less than 13 years old. Without the dance, "Macarena" is just a really odd song with two old men singing incomprehensibly in Spanish (if you know Spanish and can comprehend them, feel free to correct me). Actually, Los Del Rio presents a bit a problem as they actually had two hits, "Macarena" and "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)".

Top One-Hit Wonder destroyed by their own success
The Knack - My Sharona - 1979
I was actually kind of surprised to learn that the Knack never produced another hit. They came out at a good time, everyone was tired of disco, but the music that would define the '80's hadn't come into its own yet. So the Knack's retro-sound propelled them to number one. Unfortunately for them, because they were the only interesting thing on radio, they got way overplayed. Eventually, everyone came to hate them and all subsequent singles and albums did horribly.

Top One-Hit Wonder whose mere existence mocks an entire generation
The Archies - Sugar Sugar - 1969
When you think of 1969, what do you think of? Probably not kid-friendly bubblegum pop, but that was exactly what the number one song of 1969 was. The band was made up of freaking cartoon characters! All the anti-war, hippie music made famous in 1969 at one point bowed before the might of "Sugar Sugar".

Top One-Hit Wonder produced by a movie
Lulu - To Sir with Love - 1967
This song was the theme of the film "To Sir with Love". I've never heard of either. Lulu actually enjoyed some success in the UK, even appearing on Eurovision, but it was only her connection to the movie that got her music played in the US. It's actually kind of an strange song, with an odd rhythm and an almost non-existent chorus, which might explain why no one plays it today.

Top One-Hit Wonder with impeccable timing
SSgt Barry Sadler - The Ballad Of The Green Berets - 1966
The Vietnam War is now mostly associated with songs like "War", "Fortunate Son", and "Blowing in the Wind". Luckily for SSgt Sadler, he was able to get this song out and on the airwaves before public mood turned heavily against the Vietnam War.

Top One-Hit Wonder who didn't want to be famous
Terry Jacks - Seasons in the Sun - 1974
After eking out a living as a musician, Terry Jacks band, the Poppy Family, scored a number one hit in Canada. Jacks soon found that he didn't really enjoy being famous or performing concerts, so the band broke up. He then recorded a solo album. It included "Seasons in the Sun" which became one of the biggest hits by a Canadian musician ever. Cursed with the awesome power of every song he sang becoming a hit, he left the music industry.

Top One-Hit Wonder that is the epitome of everything a one-hit wonder should be
Tag Team - Whoomp! There it is - 1993
Go to Youtube, there is no official video. Go to Wikipedia, all it says about Tag Team is that they existed. I have found more information on obscure one-hit wonders from the '60's. Tag Team basically released this one song that did monstrously well, and then were completely forgotten by history.

Top One-Hit Wonder ever
Sir Mix-A-Lot - Baby Got Back - 1992
Sir Mix-A-Lot might disagree with being called a one-hit wonder, he did have two albums go platinum, but "Baby Got Back" was his only song to make it to the Hot 100 Year-End Chart, and is the song he will forever be remembered for. While many rappers have tried similar songs, they either took themselves too seriously or tried too hard to be funny. Sir Mix-A-Lot was able to strike a perfect balance and created a song so memorable that it could never be topped. The fact that he faded so quickly into obscurity is probably best for everyone.

Guess who's the new favorite

That's right, Jimmie Johnson won the race today, paving the way for his fourth consecutive cup win. Here are the updated predictions on who will win the chase:

Johnson - 21%
Stewart - 18%
Martin - 15%
Gordon - 13%
Montoya - 11%
Busch - 8%
Hamlin - 4%
Edwards - 3%
Biffle - 3%
Newman - 2%
Kahne - 0%
Vickers - 0%

Back to a lower US Dollar

While I was in Korea, I kept track of the declining US Dollar for a few months, as it seemed inevitable that it would keep falling for some time. However, I gave up as the trend reversed itself and people started buying up US Dollars due to the recession.

While it's hard to say if the recession is over or not, two details point towards it coming to end. First, miles driven on US highways have started to increase, second, since February nearly all major currencies have gone up in value against the US Dollar. That's right, the sinking US Dollar is a sign of recovery. Unlike in 2007 when the declining US Dollar was always in the news, this decline has largely gone unheralded. However, as the US Dollar inches closer to parity with the Canadian Dollar, we will probably start hearing things.

Anyway, I set up a few new benchmarks with predictions as to when they'll be reached (monthly average).

7 Swedish Krona > $1 US, Oct. 2009
30 Russian Rouble > $1 US, Oct. 2009
1 Canadian Dollar > $1 US, Dec. 2009
1 Australian Dollar > $1 US, Dec. 2009
1 Swiss Franc > $1 US, Dec. 2009
1100 Korean Won > $1 US, Dec. 2009
1 NZ Dollar > $1 US, Mar. 2010
1.50 Brazilian Real > $1 US, Mar. 2010
0.60 Euro > $1 US, Apr. 2010
90 Yen > $1 US, Jul. 2010

Place your bets on the Chase

I've been playing around with numbers and wanted to see if there was a way to predict the likelihood of each NASCAR drivers' chances of winning the championship. I came up with a formula using the average numbers of points each driver received at all previous races this season. The one thing it leaves out is their predicted results at the final seven races. I mention this because, while I currently have Stewart as the favorite, the next race is at Fontana, and Johnson has an amazing record there. So I kind of expect that after that race, Johnson with be the favorite.

Chances of winning:
Stewart - 15%
Johnson - 14%
Martin - 12%
Gordon - 11%
Montoya - 9%
Hamlin - 9%
Busch - 8%
Biffle - 6%
Edwards - 5%
Newman - 5%
Kahne - 4%
Vickers - 2%

Astrology is BS (Statistically proven)

OKTrends

The dating site OKCupid has been posting a lot of statistical information on users, looking at match percentages and reply rates. They have a lot of information about race and religion and also what kind of message gets the most replies. However, my favorite statistic they found deals with Astrological signs.

Dominate Parties

When looking over the results of the recent election, I became curious about how the individual Länder voted. When I colored each Länder as the color of the party that won a plurality there, this is the map I got:

It shows a Germany dominated by the CDU, with Die Linke challenging them in the east and SPD reduced to a small holding in Bremen (Bremen is non-contiguous, which is why there are two red dots). This map reminds of basically every map from a Swedish election. Let's look at the 2006 results as an example:

Sweden is dominated by the Social Democrats and the Moderates are left with only a foothold in Stockholm. However, the Social Democrats actually lost this election. How is that possible? The Social Democrats are the largest party in Sweden by a mile, however, their opposition isn't just the Moderates, but rather The Alliance, a collection of four smaller parties. While individually, none of these parties can compete against the Social Democrats, together, these four parties were able to get more votes than the Social Democrats. So if we look the election as a battle between coalitions and not parties, we get this:

Well, it still looks like the Social Democrats dominate, but the areas won by the Alliance include the four largest cities in Sweden.

So what does this have to do with the Germany map? Like the Social Democrats, the CDU is now by far the largest party, so on a party versus party basis, they're hard to beat. That said, they only received 34% of the vote, so while they won pluralities in most Länder, the majority didn't vote for them. It is also one of the worst results that CDU has ever received, it's just that the SPD did so much more worse. Another problem is that the map also seems to overemphasis Die Linke. Despite winning plurality in two Länder, Die Linke is only the fourth largest party overall. So if SPD managed to win Bremen, what happened to the third largest party, FDP? This is more a matter of concentration of votes. There is no real FDP stronghold, they basically receive the same result everywhere, meaning they're never the smallest party, but they're also never the largest. Die Linke voters however are heavily concentrated in East Germany, so while their overall vote is kind of low, in select locations, their share of the vote is quite high.

So instead of looking at the results based on how the parties did, let's look at how the CDU/FDP Coalition did against the left-wing parties.

This map seems to better represent the actual result, which is that the vote was very close, with the CDU/FDP Coalition only winning with a plurality. In fact, the CDU/FDP Coalition only received a majority in just three Länder, winning the rest with just a plurality. So this was not exactly a crushing defeat for the German left. If the SPD ever decided to give up its objections to Die Linke, it could very well retake the German government.

Churches have elections?

The Local.se

The Church of Sweden held an election for its General Synod on Sunday. Since the Church of Sweden was (or is, I forget) part of the government, these elections are highly political and all major political parties run candidates alongside parties that only exist within the Church. Anyone that that is a member of the Church of Sweden, which is most of Sweden, can vote. However, only 12% did so.

In a follow-up article they mention big gains made by anti-gay marriage groups. Sweden recently approved of gay marriage, with the Christian Democrats being the only dissenting party within the Riksdag. I was going to put up a post about how this would seem an obvious result given that voters in a General Synod election with such low turn-out would tend to be conservative and focused on recent controversies. However, a look at the full results reveals something else. All left-wing parties also increased their share of the vote. The only parties to lose seats were the center-right parties. So anti-gay groups made gains, but so did leftist, pro-gay groups.

Could it be a sign that Swedish politics are becoming more polarized? Actually, probably not. Sweden is a social democratic country, so any gains made by the Social Democrats is probably a move back towards the center. While there was movement towards the right within the right, they still shrunk overall.

Flash Mob "Approves" of Merkel

The Local.de

Tom is probably the only person that reads this that will appreciate it, but during a recent CDU rally in Hamburg, a flash mob showed up and shouted with great enthuiasm, "yeah!" after every statement Chancellor Merkel made.

Visit Denmark!

BBC News

So how do we get people to visit Denmark? I know, post a video of a young lady holding a baby that was conceived during a one-night stand some foreigner had during an obviously very good vacation in Denmark.

When I first read about it, it just sounded hilariously offensive, but having watched the video, it just seems sad. Did no one along the line of the making of this video say, you know what, this is kind of offensive and depressing? Who is going to watch this video and think they should visit Denmark? Other than people attending to have at least one illegitimate child in every country.

New Music, courtesy of Ralph

Ralph, like me, is a big fan of new music, so when we met in Würzburg we exchanged music. Here are some the best new bands I learned of from Ralph.

MGMT
I first heard "Electric Feel" on the radio here in Germany and thought it was brilliant. Ralph finally let me know who it was. The video I linked to is for a different song and isn't the official video. I didn't like the official one.

Cold War Kids
I'm pretty sure I've heard of them before, but for reason they didn't get my attention until I heard this song.

Dear Reader
Some light acoustic music.

Gisbert zu Knyphausen
German music for those that are interested.

The Gossip
I think this is pretty stunning. Such a clean, crisp sound.

I Am Kloot
This guy sounds very British.

Mando Diao
Swedish band with a bit of a retro sound. Not so much in this song, but in others.

White Rabbits
I love the drums on this song.

Felice Brothers
Similar to Cold War Kids. I heard of them a long time ago, but they didn't get my attention until I heard "Run Chicken Run".

Miss Li
Swedish singer that reminds me a lot of fellow Swede Maia Hirasawa.

Bonus:
Dead Heart Bloom
I've had a copy of one of their CDs since college, but it wasn't until recently that I discovered they have all of their music for free on their website. You should download it.

Top ten movies I haven't seen

More fun with Criticker. You can search for movies based on popularity. The most often ranked movies on Criticker are The Matrix, Fight Club, and Kill Bill, which probably says a lot about the kind of people that use Criticker. Anyway, I decided to use it to find the 10 most popular movies that I haven't seen.

1. The Sixth Sense - Didn't have much interest in seeing this movie when it first came out, and now that I know the twist ending, I don't have much incentive to see it.

2. Seven - The concept of Seven always seemed interesting, but I can never bring myself to watch it.

3. Memento - This movie falls into the category of movies everyone assumes I've already seen, so they never think to invite me to watch it.

4. Back to the Future - I've never had a chance to watch it all the way through. Speaking of which, I saw the third one multiple times when I was a kid, but I have yet to have viewed a single scene from the second one.

5. Titanic - I've seen bits and pieces, enough to know I don't care to see the whole thing.

6. The 40-Year-Old Virgin - I'm surprised so many people have seen it. I thought it sounded dumb, but apparently it's pretty good.

7. The Silence of the Lambs - I'm not a fan of horror movies, but I liked Red Dragon, so maybe.

8. Reservoir Dogs - They played this movie once when I was on the bus riding back to Asheville from NCSSM, but I don't remember any of it other than we didn't finish it.

9. A Clockwork Orange - Another movie everyone assumes I have seen.

10. A Beautiful Mind - The only movie about an economist and I haven't seen it.

Mu Cow - Best Movies

Criticker

Criticker has a new feature (well, new to me) that let's you organize films based on various categories, so I've decided to make my own "Best Movies" from each year and genre.

1927 - Metropolis
1928 skip
1929 - The Cocoanuts
1930 - Animal Crackers
1931 - Monkey Business
1932 skip
1933 - Duck Soup
1934 skip
1935 - A Night at the Opera
1936-43 skip
1944 - Arsenic and Old Lace
1945-54 skip
1955 - The Court Jester
1956-62 skip
1963 - The Raven
1964 - Dr. Strangelove
1965 skip
1966 - Batman
1967 - How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying
1968-70 skip
1971 - Harold and Maude (the only movie)
1972-73 skip
1974 - Young Frankenstein
1975 - Quest for the Holy Grail
1976 skip
1977 - A New Hope
1978 skip
1979 - The Jerk
1980 - The Empire Strikes Back
1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982 - Blade Runner
1983 - Return of the Jedi
1984 - Ghostbusters
1985 - Brazil
1986 - Labyrinth
1987 - The Princess Bride
1988 - Young Einstein
1989 - Christmas Vacation
1990 - Edward Scissorhands
1991 - Hudson Hawke
1992 - Aladdin
1993 - Groundhog Day
1994 - Forrest Gump
1995 - Braveheart
1996 - Trainspotting
1997 - The Fifth Element
1998 - The Legend of 1900
1999 - Fight Club
2000 - Requiem for a Dream
2001 - Moulin Rouge
2002 - Chicago
2003 - Return of the King
2004 - Napoleon Dynamite
2005 - Batman Begins
2006 - The Fountain
2007 - No Country for Old Men
2008 - The Dark Knight
2009 (so far) - Watchmen

Romance - Metropolis
Drama - Metropolis
Crime - The Dark Knight
For Kids - The Emperor's New Groove
Action - The Fountain (really?)
War - Braveheart
Western - Dead Man
Animation - The Emperor's New Groove
Thriller - Metropolis
Documentary - Animals are Beautiful People
Comedy - Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Sci-Fi - Metropolis
Musical - Moulin Rouge!
Fantasy - Batman Begins
Adventure - Children of Men
Horror - Young Frankenstein
Mystery - The Dark Knight

So apparently Criticker defines genres very broadly and inconsistently, as a lot of these don't make sense (Batman Begins is a fantasy, but The Dark Knight is not). It appears that Metropolis is the overall winner, but I like how often Batman shows up. Another thing I found funny, despite giving all the Lord of the Rings movies the same rating, Return of the King is the only one that makes the list.

World of Text

World of Text

Counting on just your fingers is for amateurs

The World Atlas of Language Structures

After a rousing discussion on linguistic typology, I decided to look up more information on the subject. I got a bit side-tracked when I found this website. While reading through the articles I came across this one on numeral systems. It has some interesting stuff in it, but definitely read the part about Kobon and the extended body-part system. It's pretty brilliant.

New Music Addendum

Bat for Lashes
I meant to put this in my last music post, but I had so many bands I totally forgot. I heard a bit about Bat for Lashes long before I heard their music. Many bands that get a lot of hype in indie music circles tend to either be really weird or really generic, so I wasn't anxious to hear Bat for Lashes. However, I'm really impressed. "Daniel" is a great song, although something about it reminds me of Pat Benatar.

Voter intimidation (a Eurovision post)

Radio Free Europe

Three months after the last Eurovision, a young Azeri man was called to the National Security Ministry and asked to explain his vote. He had voted for Azerbaijan's rival, Armenia. Azerbaijan and Armenia are currently locked in a territorial dispute, but why Eurovision votes are so important to them is unclear.

The whole situation is bizarre. As I mentioned before, Eurovision was three months ago, why are they going after him now? Why is the National Security Ministry even interested in how people voted? How much work was it for them to find out who were the individuals that voted for Armenia? What were they hoping to achieve?

In the end, the young man said he was finally made to write an explanation of his vote and sent away.

New Music (Sweden still rocks)

I figured it was time to share some new music I've found.

Tocotronic
Die Sterne
First, two German bands Marco told me about. I was curious about German bands that sang in German other than Wir Sind Helden. Tocotronic and Die Sterne were two of my favorites that he showed me.

Psapp
An American band that has some pretty interesting videos. Most of their songs are a bit more light-hearted than "I Want That", this one just happens to be my favorite.

Familjen
A Swedish band with an interesting electronica sound. Takes the song awhile to get started, so give it about 45 seconds.

Movits!
Swedish hot jazz rap!

Phoenix
A French band singing in English!? Now you know that's unheard of.

Valravn
Danish folk with electronica. Couldn't find a good video on YouTube. Reminds me a lot of Garmarna.

Vember
A local Berlin band I got to see in concert. I'm kind of disappointed by the music on their Myspace page. They have so much more energy live.

Vapnet
I actually first heard this band when I was in Sweden and completely forgot about them until now. I love the guitar part in this song.

Firefox vs. Chrome

Since I got to Germany, I've been having trouble with Firefox. Certain sites just won't load in Firefox. However, Google Chrome works perfectly fine (haven't tested the status of Internet Explorer). So much to my chagrin, I've had to start using Chrome.

I downloaded Chrome when it first came out because it sounded interesting, but after using it for awhile, I didn't really get what was so great about it, and all I ever heard anyone say about it was it was fast. Since I no longer use dial-up though, speed isn't really an issue, so I quit using it, but left it on my computer in case it really did have a cool feature I was unaware of. So it was convenient when I started having trouble with Firefox.

So after a little over a month of use, here's my opinion of Chrome.

Pros:
-Faster start-up. I haven't noticed much difference when just surfing the web, but Chrome is much faster at getting up and going when I click the icon.
-More useful homepage. By default, the Chrome homepage shows the nine sites I visit most, instead of taking me to one homepage I may or may not use. However, I'd be surprised if there's not a Firefox application that does that. Much better than IE though, which freezes if I don't let the homepage load before doing something else.
-Probably less memory usage. Not so much a problem with this computer, but would have been nice in the past.
-Ctrl+F is cooler. It doesn't just highlight one word at a time, but highlights every instance the word I'm looking for shows up. Also, lines show up on the side-scroll showing you where on the page the words you're looking for are.
-Open new tab is the first choice when I right-click. Not so much a problem when I have a mouse with a third button, but lately I've only been using the touchpad.

Cons:
-No multi-option search bar. On Firefox there's a search bar thing that I can change to use different search engines if I want. On Chrome, you can use the address bar to search, but only with Google. Since Firefox does the exact same thing, it doesn't seem all that useful.
-Poor address guessing. When I start to type in an address, both Firefox and Chrome try to guess what I'm searching for. Firefox is much better at this. For example, sometimes if I'm looking for www.website.com, Chrome will give me www.website.com/randompageIdonotneed.html, and never suggest just the main page. Firefox also learns what I'm looking for much better. For many sites I visit regularly, I only need to type one letter and Firefox knows what I'm looking for, even if that letter never appears in the address (i.e. typing "s" brings up www.puzzle-loop.com, because it learned that I'm looking based on the site name, Slither Link). In Chrome, even if I visit the site a lot, if it has an odd address, it will never suggest it.
-Random download folder. Some time ago, I made it so that everything I downloaded in Firefox, went to my Desktop. I have a bad habit of forgetting I downloaded something, so having it on the Desktop is helpful. Chrome downloads everything to some random folder, so I forget there are files in it sometimes.
-No applications. This means, no ad blocking, no flash blocking, etc. I had no idea how many ads the sites I visit had until I started using Chrome. There have been so many moments when using Chrome I thought, I wish I could do this, and then remembered I could do just that in Firefox.

In the end, I'm going to stick with Firefox. Even if Chrome does certain things better, Firefox just does more.

Blackwater Abuses

The Nation, first article
The Nation, second article

Blackwater is a private security contractor (mercenaries) hired by the US government for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has long been considered that Blackwater is basically a way for the US military to commit war crimes with getting in trouble. Blackwater does something wrong, the US government takes no responsibility and threatens to end their contracts with Blackwater.

The list of abuses Blackwater is accused of is quite extensive, and their very existence should be worrisome for everyone. They're basically a private entity with access to large amounts of weaponry and staffed by well-trained soldiers and is not answerable to any kind of government or international treaty.

The first article I've posted details the accusations of two former employees who do not wish to reveal their identities as they believe the owner has killed people before to keep them silent. The second article is an extension of the first, but deals more with the fact that despite the continued abuses, the US government recently renewed their contract.

Conspiracy Theory Time

Cracked.com

The Cracked article is rather old, but it deals with something that's been bothering me. Lately I've noticed, when I tell people I'm a skeptical person, they automatically assume I believe every goddamn conspiracy theory under the sun. Because apparently, being "skeptical" means never trusting the government or mass media and holding infallible proof that the world is ran by a consortium of Jews and Lizardmen.

No, being skeptical means I take nothing at face-value and research it for myself before deciding on its validity. When I was a kid, I remember hearing other kids say, "granddaddy-long-legs are the most poisonous spiders, but their mouths are too small to bite anyone." I also remember thinking these kids were idiots. The problem though is, I'm now an adult and I still hear it. These kids grew up, thinking this random tidbit was truth and never bother to question the fact that it never appears on any list of poisonous spiders or the idea of "having a mouth to small to bite a person". What does that even mean? Have you ever come across something so big, you couldn't bite it? Biting the floor is pretty difficult, but that's more an issue of it being too flat than too big.

Getting to my main point, on three recent occasions when people have caught onto the idea that I don't believe everything I hear, they start babbling on about 9/11 being an inside job. Because logically to them, since I question everything, I must question the events of 9/11. The problem is that then they assume I believe such asinine things as "there were bombs in the WTC", "a cruise missile hit the Pentagon", "it was an insurance scam", etc. But I don't believe any of these things because they're all fucking ludicrous.

This people like to say they're "skeptical" because they don't trust the government or the media, but in reality they're just exchanging one form of gullibility for another. They decide, everything the government says is a lie, so everything this nutcase is spewing out must be true. It's confirmation bias, they because the nutcase because he confirms what they want to believe, that the government is evil. No matter how bad his arguments are or how easy they are to refute, they are accepted as undeniable fact.

This creates the next problem, they don't bother doing research for themselves, or if they do, they only use sources approved by the aforementioned nutcase. They simply believe there's no reason to look at the other side because this guy wouldn't lie to them like "the media". Of course, they shouldn't believe any opposing arguments if they found them because they've already accepted as fact they everything else is a lie.

Iif someone ever does get through to them and shows them the validity of an opposing view, one of two things happens. One, they shrug their shoulders and move on to the next theory. There are dozens of 9/11 conspiracies, dispelling one does nothing to break the overarching idea that the government was involved in some ridiculous manner or another. Two, they create an even bigger and grander conspiracy theory to cover up the bad ones. "Of course the Bush administration were able to implement the greatest conspiracy in history and then fail at everything else because that's what was supposed to happen". I find it a bit easier believe that they were just incompetent, but if government were incompetent, that would mean that every conspiracy theory is wrong, so they don't agree with my logic.

When information is so readily available as it is today, it shouldn't be hard to be informed. If you don't know something, or if someone tells you something that sounds a bit dubious, go online and look it up. And don't stop with one Wikipedia article, find other articles and get a full picture, it's not hard. Hearing something a lot doesn't mean it's true either as the "granddaddy-long-legs" urban legend demonstrates.

I say I'm skeptical, but it doesn't mean I distrust everything and think everyone is lying. Believe or not, but the mass media usually tells the truth. In fact, most major news providers are pretty good sources of information. Unless you really believe Lizardmen run the world, if the same story shows up in independent newspapers across the country, then most likely it's true. News media is also a very competitive industry. So if one paper prints an article with dubious information, you can bet every other paper in town is on the street to prove them wrong and make them look like idiots.

Sources for conspiracy theories are far less reliable. If they're ever proved wrong, it's not because they're incompetent and actually wrong, it's because everyone else is lying and out to get them. Sometimes a false story gets media attention, but have you ever noticed what happens when it's discovered it's false? People get fired. This doesn't happen to conspiracy theorists. If you tell someone that reads the New York Times that it once printed false information, they'd probably say, "everyone makes mistakes." If you tell someone that reads 9-11exposed.com that it once printed false information, you can expect to get an earful. It's not a matter of, people that use mass media are used to being lied to so they just accept it, it's that conspiracy theorists are so devoted to what they believe that they simply won't accept anything else. This is not being skeptical, this is unquestioning devotion and conformity to an idea. It's like a religion for them, something most conspiracy theorists will tell you to be skeptical of.

So in the end, what should I be more skeptical of, mass media or conspiracy theories? I say, conspiracy theories, but no one else seems to agree with me.

Penguins with (Hired) Guns

BBC

Something has been killing fairy penguins in Sydney, so two snipers have been hired to protect them and find out what has been killing them.

Top 500 Slow Down

Top 500

After one stellar year for the top 500 supercomputers, this past update has shown a bit of a slow down. This is was not totally unexpected as there weren't many major new computers added in the past six months. It seems that whenever there's a new top computer, there's a sudden influx in the total FLOPS all 500 computers produce, but then it stagnates for a bit. Not that this past 6 months was terribly stagnant. The overall FLOPS produced by all 500 computers increased by 33%, just under the average of 37%.

The question now is when will the next big update come. There seems to be a new top computer every 1 to 2 years, however that time seems to increasing. BlueGene managed to hold the top spot for 3 years by continuously updating. However, during that whole time, there weren't any close competitors. The current second place computer is only slightly slower than the current top computer, Roadrunner, so it might not hold the top spot for long.

State Names

I forgot what got me interested, but I decided to find out the origin of the names of all the states. I have two maps, one showing the what language the name came from, the other showing the meaning.





What was most surprising to me is how many names are disputed or have unclear origins. You might notice that some names are disputed on one map, but not on the other. In the case of Maine and Rhode Island, the names are obviously European in origin, but what the names refer to is unknown. Similarly, Oregon's name is disputed, but all theories point to it coming from an Algonquian language. On the opposite side, the linguistic origin of Arizona is unknown, but all theories say the name is descriptive, regardless of origin.

This just leaves Idaho and California. California is very likely Spanish as one of the first mentioning of the name come from a Spanish novel. However, where the author got the name is disputed. As for Idaho, there is good evidence that the name is a hoax, and was just made up by some congressman as a proposed name for a new territory. The funny part is, the name he proposed was originally rejected, but picked up popularity and eventually became the name of a state.

One state the presents a problem is West Virginia. Even though it uses a name that refers to Queen Elizabeth, the state wasn't specifically named after her, but rather was named after the state it used to be part of.

Delaware also confused me as I had heard it used as the name of a Native American tribe. Turns out it's a bastardization of a French name. The Native American tribe was actually the Lenape, but were also called the Delaware because that's where they lived.

The Humans are Dead

Cracked.com

Michael Swaim is brilliant and you should watch all of his videos.

Greenland has elections?

World Elections

I'm sure most of you are all caught up the in the excitement of the upcoming European Parliament elections, so it's understandable that you may have missed this one.

Back in November, Greenlandic voters approved a referendum to extend home rule. The new laws are set to go into effect later this month, so they thought it prudent to hold a legislative election before then.

In a shocking blow, the socialist party that has lead Greenland since the beginning of home rule in 1979 lost to a socialist party that was a little more pro-independence. They are not going to enter into a coalition, meaning both the government and the opposition are being led by socialist parties.

District 9

District 9

This is a movie coming out by Neill Blomkamp, a South African filmmaker who has a number of shorts available online. His films tend to have science fiction themes, shot in a gritty, documentary style. District 9 appears to be an expansion on an earlier short film he did called "Alive in Joberg", available on Youtube which I also recommend you watch.

I don't want to say too much about his work, as I think you should really see it for yourself.

The Horizontal Nature of German Politics

So Germany faces a problem. During the last election neither of the two main parties were able to gain a majority, not even with the help of their traditional allies. So they settled for a grand coalition between the two main parties in order to form a government. Neither were particularly happy, but presumably it would last a maximum of four years.

Well, four years are nearly up, and currently, things aren't looking good. Both of the main parties are slumping in the polls, so making a coalition with just one of the minor parties, as the main parties would like to do, may prove impossible. The solution would be a three-way coalition, however the parties are being picky. Basically the chart of German parties looks like this:


Parties that are beside each other are willing to work together, but not with anyone else. So for example, the CDU would like to work with the FDP, but no other party. FDP are willing to work with both the CDU and the SDP, but the CDU and the SDP don't want to work together. This leaves only four possible combinations for a coalition all members are happy with. Unfortunately, current polling doesn't favor any of them. Combined, this is their share of the votes:


Seems the only combination that might work is the CDU with the FDP, but if they don't capture a majority, there's going to be trouble.

Chat Log V

I felt it was time for another chat log update. Who did I talk the most with this year? These numbers only reflect conversations held since May 1st of 2008.

#1 - Mai-Anh, again
#2 - Celeste, again
#3 - Joseph, again
#4 - Yunita, for the first time ever
#5 - Korea Robert, for the first time ever
#6 - Bonnie, somehow...

Really the fact that Yunita made it to fourth really means that I don't use AIM very often anymore. I haven't even talked to Bonnie since I left Korea, I just happened to have two really long conversations with her last May. Really, only the top five have I chatted with significantly more than most people this year. Conversations with these six people represent nearly 80% of my AIM use. That's way up from last year's 60%. In fact Mai-Anh and Celeste alone make up 50% of my conversations.

My Review of Star Trek

Do not read if you haven't seen Star Trek yet.

Let's start from the beginning of the timeline. Spock is sent out with a substance called "red matter" which despite its great power apparently requires no more supervision or protection than a single 150+ year old Vulcan. Although just a single drop of "red matter" is apparently enough to create a singularity powerful enough to engulf the ejecta of a supernova, Spock is flying around with what looks like several gallons of the stuff. Spock shows up just in time to see Romulus get destroyed which is just as well as a device powerful enough to engulf a supernova would probably take Romulus with it.

Despite being in the path of an exploding star, The Romulans apparently took no measures to evacuate their citizens even though they have an entire empire in which to relocate people. This leaves a very angry Romulan with a very large starship who proceeds to chase Spock around until they both fall into a black hole.

Despite being described as a mining vessel it is heavily armed enough to destroy a Federation starship with relative ease. It then just sits there for the next 25 years waiting for Spock to show up. There is absolutely no evidence that Spock will ever show up. It seems he would have been just as likely to show up 3,000 years later as 25 years later. What the hell Nero is doing for those 25 years is never explained. How he kept his apparently all male crew from turning against him is beyond me. Just seems like after a few years, or even just a few months, some of the crew would get fed up with just sitting around waiting for Spock. There's no indication that he's any kind of great leader, just the captain of a well-armed mining vessel.

When Spock finally does show up, Nero sets out on his mission to destroy the Federation in order to save Romulus. Completely ignoring the fact he could have simply gone to the Romulan Empire, tell them what was going to happen, and give the Romulans enough of a technological advantage to destroy the Federation several times over before Spock even delivers the red matter.

Something that obviously never occurs to Spock once he exits the black hole is that maybe he shouldn't let Nero get a hold of the red matter. The stuff for creating black holes probably isn't terribly safe in the hands of a Romulan hell-bent on revenge. Isn't it exactly these kinds of situations that auto-destruct is made for? Sure Spock probably doesn't want to die, but it seems that the chances of coming out of this situation alive are pretty low to begin with. Besides, I'm pretty sure Spock has already died once or twice, he should be used to this. Nero proceeds to take the red matter and destroy Vulcan. Good job, Spock.

At Vulcan, Nero proceeds to destroy a small Federation fleet all by himself, thus proving that he really should have just gone to the Romulan Empire 25 years ago, but I guess there's no poetic justice in that. Vulcan apparently has no defenses of its own as they simply wait around for Kirk to show up and shoot at the drill with just a sidearm to stop it. Why exactly they even have to drill the hole is unknown. Seems like a black hole would do just about the same amount of damage no matter where you put it. Also, why in the world would anyone need a mining vessel so big that it could sit in space and drill to a planet's core?

So while Vulcan is being sucked into a black hole, the leaders are hiding in a cave from which they can't be teleported, the only method of saving them. It is later reported that only 10,000 Vulcans survived. Despite being an advanced, space-faring species, they never thought of setting up colonies. I'm starting to think that Vulcans are a bunch of idiots.

Fed up with Kirk, young Spock maroons him on some frozen wasteland of a planet, presumably leaving him to die because, seriously, how does he expect Kirk to survive on that planet? Miraculously, Nero had the same idea, and marooned old Spock on the same planet. He left Spock there to watch Vulcan be destroy as apparently the planet he was on was close enough to see Vulcan, but far enough away to escape the black hole.

Later on, Kirk and Spock are beamed abroad Nero's starship and reveal the interior to be a bunch of haphazardly placed platforms with no guardrails because if there's one thing spaceships lack, it's constant fear of falling to your death.

After all this, we are left with an ending that more or less tells us that the events that took place in every single Star Trek TV series or movie never happened, except Star Trek: Enterprise.

I still gave it a 77 on Criticker.

Save the Economy, Smoke

BBC

Although it's been rescinded, it still pretty odd. Authorities in Gong'an County, China ordered government employees to purchase locally made cigarettes as a way to boost the economy. Probably one of the most short-sighted suggestions ever.

Eurovision 2009

Eurovision is finally here. While the acts were decided over a month ago, I wanted to wait until May to take a look at what was in-store. I'm sorry to say, this year doesn't look like it will be quite as crazy as last year. There are no pirates, puppet turkeys, bearded Frenchmen, or Bosnians carrying live chickens this year. However, there are a few stand out acts I've decided to share with you. These will by no means be the best acts, just the ones I thought were the most interesting.

10. Netherlands - Winner of three categories, campiest song, best suits, and best use of Obama in a music video.
9. Ireland - Irish grrl rawk! They seem a little old for this, but I also think Ireland has given up on ever winning again, so it's a good match.
8. Belgium - It was Walloon's turn to pick. Guess, did they go with a French power ballad or an Elvis impersonator?
7. Latvia - Random Latvian rock song.
6. Greece - Sexiest shoulders ever.
5. Switzerland - This is actually a pretty fun rock song, which means it has no chance.
4. Ukraine - After their first win, the Ukraine learned that sex sells and they're not about to give up now.
3. Norway - Cute... the song's alright too.
2. Serbia - Ah yes, the "we've already won once, we can do whatever the hell we want" entry.
1. Czech Republic - Super Gypsy!

If you want to watch any other preview videos, they can be found at Eurovision's Channel on Youtube.

If you want to watch the live show, here's the schedule:
1st Semi-Final, May 12th 9PM CET (or 3PM in North Carolina)
2nd Semi-Final, May 14th 9PM CET (or 3PM in North Carolina)
Final, May 16th 9PM CET (or 3PM in North Carolina)

You can watch it online at Eurovision.tv live or afterwards if you miss it.

Elections in South Africa, kind of more competitive

BBC

According to the BBC, the upcoming election is the most competitive since 1994, assuming you use a loose definition of "competitive". The ANC got nearly 70% of the vote last election, but there's been a lot of controversy so in the polls they're down to a dismal 60%. So really, it's MORE competitive than the 1994 election, when they got 62%.

Friends on Bizarre Foods

In case anyone cares, my friends Robert (Egbert not Cole) and Julli will be on the South Korea episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on April 21st at 10 and 11pm. They are food guides for the part on Korean BBQ or galbi.

First Cousins Bad, Third Cousins Good

Science Blogs

I'll start you out with this lovely article about King Charles II of Spain and how he was insanely inbred. Some of you may remember a post I did almost exactly three years ago about the lineage of the King of Sweden and I was able to connect him to King George I six times. I think I might try a similar thing with King Charles II and see what I get.

Not Exactly Rocket Science

The earlier article let me to this second article which I found fascinating. The gist of the article is that a couple who are third cousins tend to have more children and more grandchildren than other more or less related couples. The mentioning of grandchildren is important as it means that their own children were healthy enough to have their own children, which is not always the case with more closely related couples. However, why more distantly related couples have fewer children and grandchildren is a bit of a mystery.

Rare Movies

I was playing around with Criticker and an interesting idea came to me. When Criticker makes a guess of how much someone would like a movie, it takes the scores of the 1000 people that agree that person the most, finds the ones that have seen some movie, and then takes the top 10 of those to create a prediction.

When looking at a movie, it lists all other people using Criticker that have seen it, but only shows the TCI scores (the measure of how much someone agrees with someone else) for those in that persons top 1000. Therefore, if TCI scores are only shown for say 2 people, then that means out of 1000 people, only 2 have seen it.

So I got to thinking, 1000 people is, statistically, a pretty good sized group. Therefore having just two out of 1000 see a movie means that 0.2% of the population have seen the movie, with a margin of error of 3%. This lead me to wondering, which movies have I seen, that the fewest number of people have seen. There are of course of number of problems in terms of selection bias using this method, but I can deal with it.

The 30 movies I have seen that the fewest number of Criticker users in my top 1000 have thought of ranking (bolded, movies I recommend seeing):
The Baker - 0.1%
Benji the Hunted - 0.1%
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying - 0.2%
Reckless Kelly - 0.2%
The King and the Clown - 0.3%
Animals are Beautiful People - 0.4%
The Cocoanuts - 0.4%
Felix the Cat: the Movie - 0.4%
The Princess Blade - 0.5%
The Wraith - 0.5%
The Court Jester - 0.7%
Norma Rae - 0.7%
Hellbound - 0.8%
Larger than Life - 1.1%
So Close - 1.1%
Monkey Business - 1.3%
Welcome to Dongmakgol - 1.3%
Guys and Dolls - 1.4%
Boxing Helena - 1.5%
I Love You to Death - 1.6%
Ned Kelly - 1.6%
The Black Hole - 1.8%
Fantastic Planet - 1.8%
For Richer or Poorer - 1.8%
Animal Crackers - 2.0%
The Legend of 1900 - 2.2%
Strictly Ballroom - 2.3%
Vanity Fair - 2.4%
Young Einstein - 2.4%
Six-String Samurai - 2.5%

War on Cane Toads

BBC News

I'm linking this article just because of the last two sentences.

James Bond Music

So I got to thinking about the fact that every James Bond film has had a unique theme song. I decided to go through and find them all and pick out which ones were the best and the which were the worst. Turns out, most of them were pretty bad. Regardless, here are all the James Bond Theme songs ordered roughly by how much I liked them. I say roughly because I only listened to each song once and haphazardly added them to list vaguely where I thought they belonged.

Dr. No "James Bond Theme" This is the theme most associated with the bond films, first appearing in 1962 and in every James Bond movie since then. It would be a crime to not list it as number 1.

Live and Let Die Besides the "James Bond Theme", this is probably the most successful song written for James Bond. I didn't even know it was written for James Bond, despite knowing of the song and the movie of the same title.

Casino Royale If this song was in Eurovision, it would win hands down.

Goldfinger I get a feeling that I if I actually listened to the lyrics this wouldn't seem like a such a great song, but the trumpets and Shirley Bassey's voice work so well.

The World is not Enough James Bond hits another high note by having a different Shirley sing. Shirley Manson from Garbage, that is.

GoldenEye One of the few James Bond theme songs that actually sounds like it was written for an action movie.

View to a Kill Points for just being so typically '80's. The video is kind of interesting as it's filmed to make it look like Duran Duran is actually in the movie. Sure it's been done since then, but it was probably unique at the time.

The Man with the Golden Gun I rank this song higher in tribute to the guitar that died to give us this theme song.

You Only Live Twice Hard to go wrong with Nancy Sinatra. Not a bad theme song, but it doesn't seem like it could really stand on its own.

The Spy Who Loved Me I get the feeling that Carly Simon wasn't aware she was writing the theme to a James Bond movie.

Diamonds Are Forever Shirley Bassey fails to relive her success with "Goldfinger". Diamonds are ForeVVvvvEEEEERRRRR!

The Living Daylights More cheesy '80's than awesome '80's so doesn't get the same points that Duran Duran got.

Quatum of Solace The only duet to be made a James Bond theme. Too bad it's a really awkward pairing.

Moonraker Forget the song for a moment, is this video really the opening of Moonraker? Now back to the song, Shirley Bassey is brought back for another less than stellar song.

Tomorrow Never Dies Does Sheryl Crow seem like an odd choice to song the theme to a James Bond film to anyone else?

From Russia with Love Kind of a boring song, just sounds like they told the composer, write a song that says "from Russia with love" a lot.

For Your Eyes Only For some reason this song makes me thing of those entirely out of place j-pop ballads they like to play at the end of animes.

License to Kill Gladys Knight tries to ride off the success of "Goldfinger" by trying to turn it into a '80's love ballad. She succeeds, but that's not a good thing.

Die Another Day Exactly what the James Bond films needed, an electronica influenced theme song. Oh wait, no, that makes no sense at all.

Thunderball Just watch the video, even Tom Jones knows this song is ridiculous. Probably could have been a better song if anyone had any clue what a "thunderball" was.

Octopussy Unlike Tom Jones, Rita Coolidge doesn't even try to fit the ridiculous title of the movie into her song, even giving it a different name. Now all I can think is how much better having Tom Jones sing a song called "Octopussy" would have been.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service It's like whoever wrote it just thought they were supposed to be doing the original theme song, but at the the last minute were told to do a new song.

Military Spending at its Best

CNN

The scientist that worked on anti-missile laser technology are now hoping to use the same technology to kill mosquitoes. The device would detect mosquitoes based on the sound they make as they fly and then fire a laser at them. So the laser would only fire if it hears a mosquitoes, meaning people near the device would likely not get hit by lasers.

It kind of sounds like a really expensive bug zapper, but then again, it only kills mosquitoes, nothing else. Seems pretty brilliant if someone is only looking to wipe out mosquitoes without harming anything else.

LA Times

The Pentagon has spent $400 million on developing spy blimps. The blimps would fly at 65,000 feet and could stay afloat up to 10 years. Seems like a lot to spend on what on the surface seems pretty low-tech, but considering it can cost up to $100 million to launch a single satellite, it's probably not a bad idea.

Eurovision Selection

Some months ago the UK announced that they were changing their Eurovision selection process. Instead of letting the audience pick the act and song for their entrant, this year the audience will only pick the act and Andrew Lloyd Weber will write a song for the winning contestant. This left me wondering which national selection method had the best results at Eurovision. I looked at just how countries chose their final act and song in 2008. I didn't account for how they selected acts to participate or if they used multiple rounds in their selection, I only looked at the final selection.

I identified seven different selection methods, however all seven were characterized by two things, whether or not they allowed the audience to vote and/or used an internal jury. I then found the average number points countries got in the semi-final and final categorized by selection method.

	Semi-Final Points	Final Points
Average points regardless of selection method	66	100
Used both audience vote and internal jury	82	139
Internal jury involved	70	131
Audience vote involved	71	100
Internal jury only	41	98
Audience vote only	58	53

Seems the UK is right in mixing up their selection process as their previous method of just having the audience vote has a poor record. What I find interesting is that, alone, neither audience voting nor internal jury have good results, but when they're somehow used together, results improve. There seems to be a kind of synergy between them. One thing to note is that all gimmick acts were chosen by audience voting only, so possibly juries keep obviously bad acts from getting through. On the other hand, having audience participation may lessen the chances of getting an unpopular act as the jury's selection has a lot more to do with the kind of people in the jury than the popularity of the acts. Juries may tend to pick the best quality act, but Eurovision is all about popularity.

Specifically, the most successful method of selection in 2008 was when the act was picked by an internal jury, but the final song was chosen by the audience. This method was used by Armenia, Israel, and Ukraine. This method netted an average Semi-Final score of 132 and Final score of 184. Why this method was so successful (even though none of those countries won), I can't say.

The least successful method was actually the exact opposite of the most successful method, having the act picked by the audience and the song picked later by an internal jury. Of course, only one country used this method, Montenegro. It got 23 points in the Semi-Final and did not participate in the Final. Unfortunately for the UK, this is similar to the method it plans to use this year.

Just some general information, of the 43 countries that participated last year, 17 used audience voting only in choosing their entry, 8 used only an internal jury, and 18 used a mix of both. Belgium probably has the oddest method in that on even-numbered years (2008, 2006, etc) it uses only audience voting, but on odd-numbered years (2009, 2007, etc) it uses only an internal jury. This is partially because they alternate between letting Flanders and Walloon pick their entry.

Regional Contention in Elections

I remember hearing from some people with more extreme political views that the election of Obama (or sometimes McCain) would lead to riot, civil strife, and possibly all out war between Red and Blue states. This seems partially due to the proliferation of the misconception since 2000 that Red states are totally Red, Blue states are totally Blue, and there's no middle ground between. If this view is accepted, then it's only a matter of time before one of these states gets fed up and decides to leave the Union.

Of course, just looking at election results reveals that elections in individual states tend to be close, it's just a matter of certain regions happen to have more voters of one party than the other, not that the entire region votes monolithically for one party. This observation, plus the fact that there really isn't a decisive issue being handled seems to negate the idea that the US is headed towards destruction. The problems facing the US right now are important, but they are not decisive problems like slavery and civil rights were.

That all said, there were times in the past where states did vote overwhelming in favor of one party, yet the US survived those periods, more often than not with no calls for secession or civil conflict.

Thinking about all this, I decided to make a formula to measure the level of regional division during an election to see how 2008 compared to past elections. The formula is based on the standard deviation of the votes for the two main candidates in each state. A high standard deviation indicates that support for a candidate was highly regional and a low standard deviation indicates that a candidate had level support throughout the country. I chose only to measure the two main candidates for simplicity and the fact that the impact of a third party candidate would still affect the results of the other candidates, particularly if it was a regional candidate.

Here are all election years after popular voting was introduced sorted by what I call their "regional contention score". A high score means that support for the candidates was highly regional and a low score means that the candidates had level support throughout the country.

Election	RC Score	Notes
1824	1.13	First election with popular voting
1860	0.78	The election of Lincoln, two different regions each with its own candidates
1856	0.57	Collapse of the Whigs, appearance of Republicans in the North
1828	0.57
1832	0.50
1836	0.44	Whigs run three candidates hoping to force a draw in the Electoral College
1924	0.44	Democratic vote split between Davis in the South and LaFollette in the North
1892	0.44	Populists win votes in the West
1904	0.41
1912	0.37	TR runs as a Progressive
1896	0.37
1920	0.35
1908	0.32
1916	0.30
1900	0.29	Average regional contention score
1932	0.29
1940	0.28
1948	0.27	Dixiecrats win votes in the South
1936	0.26
1964	0.25	Johnson landslide, but didn't appear on the Alabama ballot
1944	0.25
1968	0.25	Wallace wins votes in the South
1928	0.25
1868	0.23	Reconstruction, median regional contention score
1888	0.23
2008	0.22	Most Recent Election
2000	0.22
2004	0.21
1864	0.21	Only northern states voted
1880	0.20
1980	0.20
1876	0.19
1996	0.19
1992	0.19	Most successful third party campaign with widespread support
1848	0.19
1884	0.18
1972	0.18	Nixon landslide election
1872	0.18
1984	0.18	Reagan landslide election
1952	0.17
1956	0.17
1988	0.16
1976	0.16
1852	0.15
1960	0.13
1844	0.12
1848	0.12

Looking at this, 2008 was not at all unusual and was actually below the average and median scores. Although, it should be noted, it was the highest score in 40 years and the number has been rising fairly steadily since 1988. Of course, this is no indication it will continue to rise, as there are historically few rising or falling trends that last four or more election cycles.

Giving the levels of regionalized voting in the past, it seems that the US can survive much more than some people give it credit for. The only time civil war was started was when the electorate was so divided that there were essentially two elections taking place at once. Other moments of highly regional voting usually indicate a split within a party and not in the nation as a whole. The highest score for an election with only two main candidates was the 1904 election which Theodore Roosevelt won by a huge margin. Part of this could have been that while Theodore Roosevelt raised support in the North, few voters in the South were persuaded to vote for a Republican, thus raising the "regional contention score", but not really indicating an increase in political division.

You need more music

It's been awhile since I did a new music post. There's no real theme to this one, just new music I've found that I don't think too many other people have heard.

Ra Ra Riot - Apparently they've been getting a lot of play on college radio, but here they are in case you haven't heard of them. They fall into the genre of chamber pop because of their use of stringed instruments kind of like the Arcade Fire.

Chad VanGaalen - Before you click, let me warn you that the video is rather strange, however, I think the song is really captivating.

The Hoosiers - A British band that Welsh Dan introduced me to. So I've known about them for awhile, but I don't think I've shared them here. Their music is pretty entertaining.

Black Mountain - Rather outside my usual music, but I enjoy it. Kind of has a classic rock sound, but darker.

Those Dancing Days - This band is so Swedish it hurts.

Cut Copy - Electronica! Kind of a throw back to the early Nineties, but I love the singers voice. Also, the video for Hearts on Fire is kind of cute.

Amanda Palmer - Amanda Palmer from the Dresden Dolls released a solo album and it's fantastic. I saw her in concert recently and it was amazing.

The Builders and the Butchers - Unfortunately, this band doesn't have an actual music video yet, but for concert footage, the audio is pretty good. They were the opening act for Amanda Palmer and they put on a great show.

Cloud Cult - Some of you might remember the Princess Bride Song that they did some years ago. Basically everyone at WDCE just played that one song and ignored the rest of their stuff, but I kind of liked it in all it's quirkiness. Since then they've put out some really fantastic albums that deserve to be listened to.

Euro Adoption, not just for Slovakians

The Local

Slovakia wasn't the only place to start using the Euro on January 1st, the Swedish town of Höganäs has decided to start using the Euro alongside the Swedish Krona. The town is a popular tourist destination, so being able to do business in Euros is a huge boost for them. It is not unusual for shops in tourist centers outside the Eurozone to accept Euros. What makes Höganäs unique is that people will be allowed to conduct all official business, such as paying bills and rent, in Euros and withdraw Euros from local ATMs.