This is a holiday card. Yes, it is.

This is a holiday card.  Yes, it is.

An Interesting Pattern?; or Statistics Are Destiny

Sociophysicists Discover Universal Pattern of Voting Behaviour

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/508676/sociophysicists-discover-universal-pattern-of-voting-behaviour/

[Face palm]]; or Hey You, Kids! Get Off My Lawn!

As if we needed more proof that Gangnam Style is The Most Annoying Pop Culture Phenomenon of 2012.

[A top ten list is sure to follow in the coming days, dear reader.]

Pressing the Pause Button, or Go To Our G+ Page

We are putting this site on hiatus for a while.  Feel free to peruse the archives to gain useful insight into your world...okay, you won't gain much insight, but maybe you will find a few bad puns and/or fart jokes.  If you are looking for the latest check out our G+ pages:

Distasteful Inelegance's page

TD's page

A Match Made in Hollywood Heaven, or Star Whores

One big happy family

In what can only be described as years overdue, Lucasfilm has been purchased by the Disney dorks.  They are perfect for each other, because both are willing to mine actual culture, bastardize it then sell it back to the masses at an obscene profit.  Plus, merchandising.  (Spaceballs reference!)

As for the venerable Star Wars franchise, it has already been adulterated beyond recognition.  (And, they weren't great films to begin with.)  So, only my seven-year-old-self will even notice, and he has been enervated to the point of irrelevance thanks to years of cynicism, drinking, and maturing tastes in the arts.  I weep, however for my son, who will only know a world where The Phantom Menace (not to mention the inevitable Episodes VII - XX) exists.

The Enthusiasm Gap, or Institutionalized Voter Indifference

Most any poll you see these days makes a distinction between registered voter results and likely voter results.  One has to wonder whether this is the worst part of our nation's democracy: the fact that one party's only chance at winning is to make sure that discrepancy is a large as possible.  We have seen many different explanations as to why voter turnout tends to be weaker among certain groups, but we have to ask whether the fact that the people reporting on elections and public affairs are hardly representative of the constituency has anything to do with disaffection among minorities.  See also: Univision staging their own debates, lack of women debate moderators, the near uniformity of newsroom demographics.

Anyway, we'll be traveling overseas again over the next few weeks, so posting will be light and sporadic.  As a result of our travel plans we have already cast a ballot.  Let's just hope the right guys win on Nov. 6th so they let us back in the country.  What?  You didn't know that the passport office checks your voting record and submits it to CBP?

We Are Making a Slight Pivot; or Don't Worry, No One Is Reading This Anyway

We've focused quite a bit on politics on this little blog for the past several months.  That was because we got a little riled up about what was going on in the presidential campaign starting with that farce that was the Republican primary contest.  We have always meant for this to be a place to talk about the Really Big Stuff - everything from cosmology to cosmetology - and that largely will not change.  You may notice, however, less of an emphasis on horse races, Coke vs. Pepsi, or however you want to derisively refer to our democracy.

We plan to take more time to look at the real and substantive issues that have meaning to most of us and are discussed rarely by Our-Great-And-Powerful-Leadership-In-Washington.  For example, what has happened to discussions of climate change (Go watch Frontline from last week.  Right now.), where economic growth comes from and why we aren't doing it right, why you can't change Washington and why that's not such a bad thing, and other deep thoughts.

We will also keep bringin' the Science! down on your head, among other topics we find interesting from the fields of technology, the arts, popular culture (but not too popular), and sport.

Of course, we are never too stuffy to avoid the occasional foray into whimsy...just like the last few days.

What is more whimsical than a picture of a flying pony
with "Whimsical" as a headline?  (Thank you Google Image Search)