Inner Space and the 11-Mile-Wide Web Page

We've all heard about and dreamed of and watched movies about outer space, but here's a demonstration about the space inside us--inside the atoms that make up the molecules that make up our bodies and everything we see. It seems that if the proton of a hydrogen atom (which has only one proton in its nucleus and one electron orbiting around it) were the size of a basketball, it's electron would be the size of a period. Makes sense, right? However, the kicker is that, in its orbit around the proton, at any given time the electron would be 11 miles away.

Check out the link below for a graphic demonstration. The page is 11 miles wide.


Phrenopolis.com: Hydrogen Atom Scale Model


filed: science

Liberal Patriotism

I often struggle to understand viewpoints that are different from my own, so I like to learn how people who disagree with me think. This article, by a former Time White House correspondent who once offered to perform sexual favors for President Clinton in exchange for his defense of abortion rights, definitely falls in that category.

The following quote was a headline on the story when I bookmarked it, but I can't find it anywhere now:

I cringed as my young son recited the Pledge of Allegiance. But who was I to question his innocent trust in a nation I long ago lost faith in?

This New York City reporter ventures upstate and puts her son in the local school, with whose parents she does not fit in. She and her city friends worry about the education he'll receive in the God-and-country-loving small town. She contacts the ACLU over proselytizing in the school, her son's favorite colors become red, white and blue, and she talks about the mixed feelings she has for this country.

By the end, some things change and some stay the same. For you education buffs out there will love this quote about when the son goes back to a nice school in NYC:

He can, it turns out -- despite the warnings of other city parents -- read at a level twice that of his new peers.

Interesting stuff.


Salon.com: Country Boy


filed: us.politics

Tom Delay's Farewell Address

Tom Delay delivered has last speech as a member of the House last week. Upbeat almost to the point of joyousness and extremely gracious to friend and foe, the speech raises some very interesting points about partisanship ("You show me a nation without partisanship, and I'll show you a tyranny.") which are almost ironic given the nature of the politically motivated attacks that lead to his retirement, yet completely in keeping with the way he played the game.

He speaks reverently of the history of our country and passionately about the sorry state our foster care system. Overall, an interesting and edifying discourse that reminds me of the good side of politics.


Republican Party of Texas: Tom Delay's Farewell Address


filed: politics.us

Electoral College Under Attack

The much maligned Electoral College is under attack again by a group who believes that the nationwide popular vote should determine our presidency. Why is this a bad idea? This article makes some great points, and here's one for a start: imagine a regional candidate who is completely out of touch with the rest of the country. If the candidate happens to be from a very populous area, they might be able to win enough votes from their geographical base to completely ignore the objections of the rest of the country (especially in a race with multiple candidates).

Because the scenario above is unlikely under the Electoral College system, it discourages fractured multi-party elections with 20 candidates for a single office since most states require a successful candidate to win a significant percentage of votes in a that state, rather than rewarding candidates with less than 10 percent support in every state. If you think politics is frustrating now, imagine electing a president who received 9 percent of the vote.

Check out this article and find out the truth: our Founding Fathers actually knew what they were doing!


GinaParker.net: There They Go Again!


filed: us.politics

The Ipod's Problem

We've read all of the articles praising the Ipod: Beautiful design, great features, world-changing business model, etc. But Paul Kedrosky has the gall to challenge the long-term wisdom behind Apple's design philosophy and by extension the vaunted KISS principle as well.

An interesting read, good points made, and extra points for swimming against the flow.


Business 2.0: Simple Minds


filed: business

How the Mafia Does Hockey

Good to see Stephen representing on the comments. This one's for you.

In a real-life story ripped from The Sopranos, a regional garbage magnate and owner of a minor league hockey team called the Trashers has been arrested on charges of racketeering, extortion, witness tampering and circumventing the league's salary cap. (Is anybody but me curious about the official charge associated with circumventing a minor league's salary cap?)

The league issued a press release saying that they decided not to play next season because their closest rivals won't play next year because of a lease issue. However, the story notes:

The release does not mention that the Trashers are under federal indictment, that [the owner] Galante is in prison awaiting trial, that his family's bank accounts have been frozen or that federal marshals are working out of the building where the Trashers and Galante's garbage companies were based.

It seems that Galante has also been paying "Matty the Horse" 10K per month for mob muscle to keep his garbage companies at the top of the heap, so to speak.


Do you ever get the feeling that reality has become a parody of HBO?


ESPN.com: UHL team cancels season after mob indictment


filed: sports; humor

The No-Cost Airline

Ireland's RyanAir wants to be the "Wal-Mart of flying". They already offer a quarter of their passengers seats for free, with that number rising to half by 2010. How do they do it? For starters, they make low-cost, low-frills Southwest look like profligate spenders...

Business 2.0: A radical fix for airlines: Make flying free

filed: business

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Eliminated

The man Osama Bin Laden called Al Qaeda's prince of Iraq is dead, bombed in a hideout by US F-16s and recovered by Iraqi and US forces. He was responsible for many attacks in Iraq, a hotel bombing in his homeland of Jordan, and it is believed that he personally beheaded two American hostages. A Sunni muslim, He had made it his business recently to kill Shiite muslims and desecrate their shrines in an effort to cause civil war in Iraq.

He was evil, and I can confidently report that he is enjoying neither the company of 70 virgins or the comfort of angels in the afterlife.


Washington Times: Zarqawi killed in U.S. Air Strike


filed: world.politics