Greg Sanders

"Make the man wish he never visited your site"

Most of you have probably heard about the guy who got Tasered at a John Kerry event.  Short version based on reporting by Slate's Mechanist he apparently broke into someone else's question demanding he get a chance to ask a question.  He got it.  He rambled a bit, had his mic cut off, and then was dragged off and Tasered by cops.  Kerry repeatedly said that it was okay and he'd answer the question while this was going on and released a statement condemning the interruption by police.

Stephen Colbert comments on the general student apathy. He notes a guy (around 2:30 in the original video) who actually looks bored while this is going on saying (paraphrasing) "He probably wanted it to be over so he could get home and watch the incident on YouTube."  He went on to make fun of activism by blogging including the title quote.  Commentary after the cut.

Voting Machines

The Post ran an interesting op-ed on verifying electronic ballot.  Specifically, challenging the author challenged the use of paper-reciepts.

Paper verification looks good on, well, paper, but it is not the cure-all some of its proponents believe it to be. More than two centuries of U.S. elections have shown us that paper is at least as susceptible to chicanery as electronic records. Paper ballots can be modified, counterfeited or destroyed with relative ease. It is not at all clear that they constitute a more reliable medium than electronic records.

Have we forgotten the days when ballot boxes could be discovered floating in nearby rivers shortly after an election?

My mother volunteers with the League of Women Voters and backs up this sentiment.  I think the opposition to electronic voting machines stems in good part from familarity.  Those of us that regularly work with software are all to aware of its shortfalls and the potential for mischief.  However, most of us have no real idea of all the other ways voting can be manipulated.

The writer, Timothy J. Ryan, suggests that paper reciepts have problems of their own.  Namely, a ~20% fail rate and a slow counting process.  He suggests a few alternatives:

A system called Prime III, developed by researchers at Auburn University, would employ a separate electronic "witness" in each voting booth. The witness, which would operate independently of the DRE machine, could more efficiently double-check the DRE's tallying of votes while safeguarding privacy and being more accessible to the disabled.

Another system, Punchscan, designed by a team at the University of Maryland, offers an exciting array of features: After casting their ballots, voters can go to a computer and use a receipt to view their individual ballots online. An exceptionally clever ballot format allows voters to see the marks they made on their ballots in such a way that they can recognize that the marks are in fact theirs, while still obscuring their specific candidate selections, as is necessary to prevent vote-buying. While a simple paper trail ensures that the voter's choices were accurate at one instant in time, the Punchscan system goes much further. Voters can confirm not only that their ballots were cast correctly but also that they were faithfully counted after the election.

I figure it's worth being open to this sort of thing.  After all, those of us that deal with technology regularly are all too aware how obnoxiously unreliable printers are.

Paging Avery Brooks: your flying car has arrived.

The Guardian has an announcement that a Moller flying car will soon be available commercially for $90,000.  I'd guess getting the cost below $100,000 is the key price point for becoming a viable gimmick.  I can just see the bumper stickers now: "My other car flies."  The creator is Paul Moller who apparently has been fine tuning this sort of thing for ages.

The M200G is apparently a derivative of the M200X shown here:

Anyways, based on the speed shown in that video, we aren't looking at a car replacement anytime soon.  That said, it does seem to achieve the core requirement of a flying car: flight via stable hovering.  I'm curious what kind of mileage it gets.  Considerings that there's eight engines, I'm guessing not great.  Still, pretty dang cool.  That said, I'm not a big fan of the music.  Sounds a little too much like a wane muzak version of the Dr. Who theme.

Via Sullivan who is back with [wedding] and honeymoon over.  I like the vow he used.

[Typo fixed: His wedding is over.  His marriage is will be going for some time to come.  Important distinction that.]