Months after attempting to upgrade the site, with it subsequently being knocked off-line, I’m back. Sadly, several important months passed in the interim - Obama’s election & inauguration the most important - and in the meantime, most of my online activity has been on Facebook and, recently, on Twitter. Click the links to visit me there.

Update: Gallup and Foreign Policy Magazine have jumped into the act. Someone remind me why we can do this for real?

Overall, the U.S. is a far more conservative society than most in the world; even our left-wing would be center-right if placed on a spectrum inclusive of parties worldwide. Therefore, it is never surprising to see reports that a high majority of the world’s Internet-possessing population, if allowed to vote in the U.S. election, would back the Democratic candidate. This isn’t an anti-Bush, anti-Republican, or even anti-American response; it’s just reflective that most of the world with Internet access is more liberal than we are.

Of course, most of these are lame attempts, that offer no real contribution to the discussion. But this year, the Economist offers a uniquely informed and suggestive model that enfranchises the world’s 6.5 billion people through a 9,875-strong Global Electoral College. As a supporter of an electoral college system, if not the U.S. version, I’m a bit giddy with this approach, but we can just chalk that up to my being a political geek. However, read their backgrounder carefully. If you’re paying attention, this sentence should provoke some introspection in Americans:

There are few countries whose votes in the Global Electoral College are a foregone conclusion. So the winner is unlikely to be decided by a small number of “swing countries”. Rather, they will have to cobble together a coalition of small, medium and large nations. (A campaign stop in Beijing is recommended, as well as a tour of Africa.)

Read that again, and then leave your thoughts in the comments.

In addition to the Economist’s project, I encourage you to also cast your vote on this new site, www.theWorldfor.com. While it appears to use a simple popular vote, rather than an electoral college model, it shows a much less Democratic-favored result; in some places, McCain leads Obama by 20%!.

The McCain supporters that confronted this guy represent the only possible salvation for the Republican Party. I wish them all the luck. Let’s take this viral!

(via Ironic Sans)

This makes me happy.

It would be easy to dismiss this as simply reflecting the more populous Northern Virginia area, but even in Southwest Virginia, when my dad is from and where it is not uncommon to see the Confederate flag in front yards, people are realizing that McCain doesn’t share their concerns. From 9/22 to 10/6, polls showed a shift there from a 54/40 McCain lead to a 48/48 tie.

Aside from the most substantive concerns about his running mate, is there anyone who doesn’t share this worry at the very core of their being?

I’ll tell you this, after the Biden-Palin debate, if John McCain is elected, I will be the man’s most vocal champion. I will toast his deeds and health each evening as long as I can still afford the booze, and rise each morning in celebration of the news that he is still alive, reasonably certain in the bargain that another day will pass without him winking at me.

(via The Moderate Voice)

…or as my wife said, if McCain wins, he’ll have over 6 billion people praying for him everyday.

My wife and I discovered the American Shakespeare Center when visiting a high school buddy of mine who lives near Staunton. We fell in love with it the first play we saw.

We’ve been back a couple of times just because, and actually bought T-shirts with the Center’s motto, “We do it with the Lights On”- a unique feature of the ASC, imitating the original Shakespearean practice, which lets the actors make eye contact with audience and draw them into the story. (They don’t embarrass you, unless you choose to sit in the Gallant’s Stools on the stage - another practice taken from Shakespeare’s day - and even then, only in asking you some rhetorical line of dialogue.)

Simply put, these actors are incredibly talented and the approach makes these great pieces of literature fun. And apart from the plays themselves, the actors loosen up during the intermissions by performing comedy routines with the audience or putting on a mini-rock concert while still in costume. Of course, my wife appreciates the on-stage bar that serves wine and other refreshments during the intermissions as well.

My wife and I stayed at the Frederick House B&B our first visit to Staunton. The hosts are very welcoming. The breakfast was delicious, and the room was sufficient, though a bit ordinary. It was a nice play to stay, but I would not say it stood out among B&B’s we’ve stayed in. On our next visit, we chose to stay at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel, connected to the Playhouse. It is a beautiful full hotel, with a fantastic breakfast buffet. We also took advantage of a special four-ticket package to the Playhouse. Well-worth it.

Lastly, I’ll also throw out a recommendation for the Pampered Palate for incredible, creative and affordable sandwiches. Staunton itself is very walkable, and this is a great place to plan on stopping in for lunch.

I find anyone insisting that their ideological views - whether it be on foreign policy, social issues or individual rights - be shared by everyone to be sufficiently uninformed, arrogant, idiotic, and otherwise disqualified to govern in a democratic pluralist society such as ours. In practice, this means I look for candidates for offices willing to engage where people are, where agreement is possible, and where civil discourse can begin.

“We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America’s promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.”

- Barack Obama
2008 Democratic nomination speech

If we start here, we can move to our respective (extremist) corners later - if we find we still need to.

(I’m posting this here, as a copy of a comment I’ve left on a couple of astronomical websites.)

Walking to work the other day, I was thinking about the “recent” supernova that was calculated to have exploded 150-odd years ago (from our perspective) when a car alarm a few blocks over went off. Of course, many ignored it, but enough turned toward it to suggest an idea.

Aside from all the technical possibilities for alerting ETIs to our presence, what if we used a natural cosmic phenomenon’s tendency to act as an galaxy-wide attention getter.

What else in a galaxy would get the attention of anyone with even a basic level of astronomical technology than a supernova? When else would be the perfect time to aim transmissions in the direction of any potential observers of the event?

A supernova is a stellar explosion. They are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy before fading from view over several weeks or months. During this short interval, a supernova can radiate as much energy as the Sun could emit over its life span. (Wikipedia)

The first recorded observation of a supernova by Earth observers was in China in 185 CE. For the purpose of this proposal, however, we’ll limit our interest to those supernovae in our galaxy alone–about two a century–since the development of the astronomical, and perhaps moreso, radio telescopy.

Imagine a few dozen radio and optical telescopes on Earth casually turning toward a new supernova to record the radiation levels and other details, and a few days later, capturing additional data that appears to intelligently composed - a “Hey, you’re looking in this direction anyway… just wanted to say hello” signal.

(Of course, the civilization broadcasting would be aiming their “..hello” 180 degrees away from the phenomenon for this to work!)

I have no idea if this idea is simply ridiculous as I’m no expert, just a casual SETI buff, but I thought I’d share the proposal in case someone can get SETI folks to start observing supernovae as part of their efforts.

“If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.”