Category: Interesting

Granted, they’re only re-building about 200 yards of it (considering the original was 96 miles long), but that’s still quite a bit. The project is being done to “ensure that the brutality of the Communist regime is not forgotten, and to stop the Wall being wiped from memory.” Really, I think most Berliners want the Wall — and the memories associated with it — to be forgotten. Full story.

Among the questions getting answered in an upcoming Primetime Live special:

Of those involved in a committed relationship, who is very satisfied with their relationship?

Republicans ? 87 percent; Democrats ? 76 percent

Who is very satisfied with their sex life?

Republicans ? 56 percent; Democrats ? 47 percent

The poll analysis also reveals who has worn something sexy to enhance their sex life:

Republicans ? 72 percent; Democrats ? 62 percent

When asked whether they had ever faked an orgasm, more Democrats (33 percent) than Republicans (26 percent) said they had.

Democrats are more likely to fake it, ‘eh? <flamebait>I’m willing to bet that Republicans are more likely to lie on surveys like this, but the Dems are always worried about identity so they’re probably more likely to fake it so they can look good</flamebait>. Really, they’re both just screwed up.

Thanks Josh for the link.

(I can only imagine the search referrals I’m going to get from this one.) Some Mac heads with far too much time, energy, and libido on their hands have created a very extensive Apple-inspired softcore porn library. Link via BB.

And this is obviously NSFW. Sorry I didn’t make that clear, Neil.

Update: Link removed since it made Google Adsense grumpy. Google it and I’m sure you can find it.

I really don’t know, as I didn’t watch much of it, but what I did watch seemed like Kerry did a better job. Regardless, The Washington Post has a full transcript as well as a “Debate Referee” that fact-checked the debate. Makes for an interesting read.

Thanks to one well-linked LiveJournal post, everybody’s in an uproar thinking that there’s going to be a pile of ballot fraud and problems with Michigan’s presidential election because of this mis-print (and it was a mis-print, not some vast conspiracy). People need to calm down, as only about 69 of those ballots were printed, and they’ve since been replaced. Heck, even the person that originally noticed the mistake and gave it to her friend (who then posted it on LJ) didn’t want it blown out of proportion.

Take a deep breath, everybody. Besides, if somebody was going to fix the election, do you think they’d use obvious method like this?

Link via Al’s Morning Meeting.

All of the problems at Nick’s Mathematical puzzles should be able to be solved with pre-college math, but they’re still pretty dang tricky. I used to love math class in highschool (didn’t take any math in college, despite getting a BS, because I challenged out of the classes I needed). I think I’ll keep myself less rusty and start plowing through these (yes, I am weird).

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto is one of the most difficult pieces a piano player could ever play. Most pianist wouldn’t even attempt it. It drove David Helfgott, the Australian prodigy portrayed in the movie Shine to a nervous breakdown. I’ve heard it. I’ve seen the music for it. My wife, a pianist (though she’ll never admit it) tried playing it really slow, and still couldn’t do it. It’s just that hard.

So what do you do when you’re the Oregon Symphony’s president, and you find out that your pianist that was scheduled to play the piece in your three-concert series has crippled his right hand so bad after the first concert that he’s unable to play? You panic, and then you call all around the country to find a last minute replacement that flies into Portland an hour before concert time after not playing the piece since March. Full story. Thanks Isacc for the link.

In case you live in a hole, you already know that Mt. St. Helens is blowing its top. Again. If you want to get some good pictures of the action, the U.S. Geological Survey has some great pictures online from the last couple weeks. A ton of Oregon bloggers can see it, and have posted their comments. Thanks Barney for the pictures link.

This guy’s going to get some flack over this (get user/pass here):

Do bloggers have the credentials of real journalists? No. Bloggers are hobby hacks, the Internet version of the sad loners who used to listen to police radios in their bachelor apartments and think they were involved in the world. …Most bloggers are not fit to carry a reporter’s notebook.

Generally, I agree with him, but there are many great bloggers out there that are probably better reporters than he is (and many good reporters who are also bloggers). Link via Romensko.

If you use the Amazon’s new A9 search engine (which is actually a pretty slick system), you’ll get approximately 1.5% off your Amazon purchase. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me, and a great incentive for people to use the search engine.

On a side note, if you want to send a few pennies my way, you can search for Amazon goods using the form on this site (down in the right column). I think I’ve gotten a total about $.43 (yes, there is a decimal-point there) from it, but I figured I’d plug it anyway.