Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society

Ted's Caving Page

(kind of long, but interesting)

Hobbits

I think it's funny how all the news articles about those ancient skeletons (homo floresiensis) found in Indonesia are referring to them as hobbits. :)-
It looks as though they might be able to extract some DNA because not all the bones have fossilized yet.

Sox take 2-0 lead

Boston is half of the way to its first World Series victory in 86 years, despite committing 4 errors in each game. Is this a team of destiny or what?

Election predictions, anyone?

Anyone care to take a guess as to how the presidential election is going to turn out? I'll post my prediction as a comment so as not to influence your guesses.

You knew it all along

Salon reports (subscription or ad-viewage required) that the Program on International Policy Attitudes issued a report showing that Bush supporters are significantly more clueless and less informed than Kerry supporters.

Great joke overheard today: What's the difference between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War? George W. Bush had a plan to get out of Vietnam.

Watch out, Boston,

for the Cardinals are coming to town!

Synchrotron

Saskatoon has a new synchrotron! Here's some non-technical background information.

Why I love Canada

Two more great reasons to love Canada:

Canada recently announced a budget surplus of $9.1 billion, making seven straight years of running a surplus. What's the biggest complaint of the opposition? The surplus was too large.

On the season premiere of the CBC's Rick Mercer's Monday Report, Canadian author Pierre Burton showed the public his technique for rolling marijuana cigarettes. (You can watch the video online from the previous link.) Can you imagine the outrage if a US broadcast network, much less one that's semi-public, broadcast a primetime segment of a helpful demonstration on proper joint rolling technique?

Much ado about nothing

On average, Hallowe'en falls on a Sunday one out of every seven years. Get over it.

Unauthorized Cheney biography

The CBC's investigative documentary the fifth estate ran an eye-opening segment entitled The Unauthorized Biography of Dick Cheney. It detailed his systemic abuse of power and privilege from his days in Wyoming to the present. The website has most of the factual stuff, but the televised segment was damning in a way that a website can't accomplish -- think Michael Moore but with the CBC's higher fact-checking standards. If any of you have access to Canadian television or know someone who does, it will be rebroadcast Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Check it out.

Extreme weather update

I think we all might have guessed that the one of us most likely to sustain property damage due to severe weather would be Qian, who miraculously managed to stay on the good side of Charley, Frances, and Jeanne. But this afternoon we had three-inch hail here in Socorro. Instead of having four skylights, we now have four giant holes in our ceiling (and we had a mess of glass shards, rain, and hail inside). Our car windshield is cracked in many places, but I got pretty lucky compared to most of the cars in the NRAO Socorro parking lot. Many cars no longer had a windshield at all... or a rear windshield, or side windows.

All that ice might have been a beautiful sight if it weren't so destructive.

Beer + Caffeine + Ginseng = ?

Personally, I think caffeinated beer sounds kind of silly. I guess it might be better than lousy beer. And look, it's not low-carb! :)-

SpaceShipOne

SpaceShipOne won the X Prize!