Romney seen as most threatening to Obama according to top Dem politicos

Posted on by

"It looks like he's got the strongest campaign, he's raised the most money, and he's not part of the current morass in Washington." -- Top Democrat insider

From Eric Dondero:

The Hotline at National Journal recently conducted an interesting survey. Romney is clearly the far away best hope for a smooth victory for the GOP in 2012, according to some Democrat insiders.

With the economy sputtering, Democratic political operatives view former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as the main Republican threat to President Obama‘s reelection, according to this week’s National Journal Political Insiders Poll.

Democratic Insiders see Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has not yet declared whether or not he will run for president, as the second strongest against Obama. A separate poll of Republican insiders, released Thursday, also showed Perry as Romney’s main GOP challenger.

Who would be the Republicans’ strongest presidential nominee in 2012?

Mitt Romney 48% 27%
Rick Perry 20% 5%
Jon Huntsman 16% 25%
Chris Christie 6% 11%
Tim Pawlenty 6% 20%

Interestingly, some favorites of the libertarian/Tea Party wing - Herman Cain, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Gary Johnson or even Michele Bachmann - did not place as serious contenders.

H/t Race42012

Dueling polls in Spain: Que Pasa?

Posted on by

by Clifford F. Thies

One poll shows the center-right Peoples Party 14 points ahead, on the verge of a victory of historic proportion, while the other shows the Socialist Workers Party within 7 points, poised for a dramatic comeback. Que pasa?

Como se dice, follow the money. The poll showing the center-right party with a double-digit lead was commissioned by the newspaper El Pias of Madrid. In contrast, the poll showing the Socialist Workers with a chance of retaining its control of the government was conducted by a government-funded research institute.

When the Peoples Party wins the election, do you think one of the cuts in spending they will institute is government-financed polls? Quizas, mi amigo, quizas.

UPDATE! This just in: A third poll, released today (August 7th), confirms the findings of the private sector-comissioned poll discussed above. This poll, also commissioned by a newspaper, shows the Peoples Party with a 13-point lead over the ruling Socialist Workers Party, and on the verge of an absolute majority.

"Bloodbath" in Germany: Turkish Muslim guns down 4 in car in downtown district in broad daylight

Posted on by

Honor Killings increasing [because they were] "embracing Western lifestyles"

From Eric Dondero:

Many are speculating it was an honor killing. Police are looking for a "26-year-old Turk called Mehmet [Yemini], who fled the scene."

He was previously married to one of the victims. He shot three others, two who were sitting in the back seat, died from their injuries, and the former wife and another survived.

From the London Daily Mail "Bloodbath in Berlin as morning 'honour killing sees jilted lover shoot mother and sister of ex-wife dead’" Aug. 6:

A horrific scene unfolded in Berlin in broad daylight yesterday morning when a gunman fired a volley of shots into a car, killing two women and seriously injuring the man driving it.

The execution-style massacre was carried out in the busy Wedding district of the city and was witnessed by horrified shoppers and commuters.

Media reports suggest it may have been a so-called ‘honour killing’...

The Daily Mail notes that there have been an increasing number of "honor killings," across German in recent years:

They were killed by family members angry at their embracing of Western lifestyles.

Real life interaction is a feature, not a bug | Gene Expression

Posted on by

The prince of neurobloggers Jonah Lehrer has a good if curious column up at the Wall Street Journal, Social Networks Can’t Replace Socializing. He concludes:

This doesn’t mean that we should stop socializing on the web. But it does suggest that we reconsider the purpose of our online networks. For too long, we’ve imagined technology as a potential substitute for our analog life, as if the phone or Google+ might let us avoid the hassle of getting together in person.

But that won’t happen anytime soon: There is simply too much value in face-to-face contact, in all the body language and implicit information that doesn’t translate to the Internet. (As Mr. Glaeser notes, “Millions of years of evolution have made us into machines for learning from the people next to us.”) Perhaps that’s why Google+ traffic is already declining and the number of American Facebook users has contracted in recent months.

These limitations suggest that the winner of the social network wars won’t be the network that feels the most realistic. Instead of being a substitute for old-fashioned socializing, this network will focus on becoming a better supplement, amplifying the advantages of talking in person.

For years now, we’ve been searching for ...

Modifying a 1.2GHz Video Receiver

Posted on by

I have a video receiver which I have taken apart. I have noticed that there is a variable resistor inside for tuning it. It has 3 wires going to it. If I changed this resistor for one with a different range of values, would it be possible to pick up a much wider range of frequencies such as FM radio

NASA@Work Officially Relaunched Agency-wide

Posted on by

NASA Internal Memo: Agencywide Re-launch of the NASA@Work Collaborative Program

"Based on the overwhelming success of and participation with the NASA@Work pilot program, NASA is pleased to announce the official agencywide re-launch of the NASA@Work collaborative program. NASA@Work is an internal collaboration platform that connects the collective knowledge of individual experts from all areas within the NASA organization via a private web-based environment supported by InnoCentive. The platform provides a venue for Challenge Owners, those looking for solutions or new ideas, to pose challenges to internal Solvers, those within NASA with the skill and desire to create enlightened solutions. The Solvers who deliver the best innovative ideas can win awards and will be recognized for their contributions at the 2012 NASA Project Management (PM) Challenge."

I’ve got your missing links right here (06 August 2011) | Not Exactly Rocket Science

Posted on by

Top picks

Watch the entertaining sexual displays that cause flamboyant male Houbara bustards to age faster. I especially liked Wired’s coverage

Inside Nature’s Giants dissects a sperm whale. This is the best nature programme on modern TV bar none.

John Rennie has a great post about 3D Printing and the era of Downloadable Objects.

Too detailed to be true? Serious concerns have been raised about the accuracy of the New Yorker’s piece on the bin Laden raid. Where was their fabled fact-checking?

WOW! Neuroscience of a ragtime pianist who can follow 4 symphonies simultaneously

What Home Looked Like For Seven Million Years – Carl Zimmer on where humans evolved

What happens when journo students have to make a newspaper with no computers? Brilliance ensues. Don’t miss the rest of the experiment as students struggle to type 2011 on a typewriter

From Catch-22 to Wikipedia. A cool list of 10 great moments in editing

The delightfully beautiful world of lichens, by Jennifer Frazer. White Worms and Pixie Cups in Colorado

“Toxic goo” from Apollo-era rockets will cost NASA about $1 billion to clean up. The dark side to all that hype and optimism.

God’s blog. Oh the comments.

Adam Rutherford ...

Angry cloud makes EPOD! | Bad Astronomy

Posted on by

Just a quick shout-out to the folks at Earth Science Picture of the Day, which featured my Angry Cloud pic in today’s post.

EPOD is a pretty cool site, with a different shot of some Earth sciencey thing every day (duh). I keep it in my RSS feed reader along with several other such sites; besides providing beautiful pictures, there’s always some science nugget there I didn’t know about before.

If I weren’t an astronomer, I’d be a geologist or meteorologist. I love both those fields! Of course, both are related to astronomy; the former due to planetary physics (and asteroid/comet impacts), and the latter because it’s hard to observe unless it’s clear (or you’re a radio or space astronomer).

Looking up, looking down… it’s all related. It’s science, and it’s cool.


Confirmed! Magazzu buster a "libertarian Republican"

Posted on by

Weiner on a smaller scale

by Eric Dondero

The news first broke Sunday night; yet another Democrat sex scandal ala Weiner-gate, and even juicier than Wu the teenage girl "Woo-er."

This guy - a big shot and quite powerful Cumberland County Commissioner - took photos of himself naked and sent them off to an on-line female acquaintance. Well, the predictable happened. The acquaintance just happened to have a Republican blogger friend. You can pretty much guess what happened after that.

A funny story no doubt. And all the more merrier cause it happened to a Democrat. But not necessarily of great interest to LibertarianRepublican.net, until now.

From the Trenton DailyJournal.com "Behind Magazzu's downfall, a bitter, longtime adversary":

For nearly three years, [Carl] Johnson waged a relentless and bitter cyberwar against Cumberland County political powerbroker Louis N. Magazzu. Johnson is a semi-reformed wild child, a graphic artist and a political activist -- in a libertarian/Republican kind of way. None of that has led to fame or fortune.

Magazzu is a veteran political operator, a serial victor in tough elections and a savvy Democratic Party insider with connections reaching to Trenton and Washington.
In this fight though, the victory went to the spoiler.

On Tuesday, The Daily Journal reported Johnson was posting on his website -- magazzuwatch.com -- nude photographs of Magazzu and a related cache of cooing emails between him and a woman that is not his wife. The postings disclosed an online relationship of at least a few years.

See the yucky photo of a naked Magazzu at Carl's website (which has been getting bombarded with hits the last few days), where you can also donate to his legal defense fund. No surprise Magazzu and his lawyers are coming after him.

MagazzuWatch.wordpress.com

Photo h/t for Weiner our friends at BigGovernment

Steny Hoyer agrees with John Boehner and Republicans: Jobs Report released Friday, totally Sucks!

Posted on by

From Eric Dondero:

ABC News reports that House speaker John Boehner reacted to the release of the Jobs Report on Friday, in a grim manner:

“While the American people are asking ‘where are the jobs?’ the Democrats running Washington are determined to punish small businesses with higher taxes and more red tape – including hundreds of new regulations last month alone – and to keep their spending binge going at all costs. Instead of more jobs, they’re creating more fear, more uncertainty, and more debt.”

But the stunner, Democrat Minority Whip Steny Hoyer agreed:

“unsatisfactory for the millions of Americans who remain unemployed and for the millions more waiting to feel the effects of economic recovery.”

“Clearly, we must do more. It is truly disappointing

Bad GFI

Posted on by

Please don't tell me to call an electrician. I'm not one, but I can handle wiring, and I know how not to get electrocuted.

Half my kitchen went out this morning. It's protected by a GFI breaker on the main panel. Outlets are good. I ran the wires to a known working GFI in the panel and it seems to

When I Grow Up, I Want To Be An Enigma

Posted on by

UPDATE:  Solved by Alex at 12:10 CDT

Welcome to Saturday.  It is Saturday, right?  I went around all day yesterday thinking it was Thursday, so I’m currently suspended somewhere between Friday and Saturday.  Like a bug stuck in amber.

So!  With that charming visual to work with, let’s get going on that riddle.

The answer to today’s riddle will be found in reality:

Mmmmmmm - looks nummy

You shouldn’t look too far away, all things considered.

On one hand, this has to do with hope and inspiration…

… on the other hand, it’s just flat stealing something which doesn’t belong to you.

Painting by Jacob Jordaens 1593 - 1678

It looks like this has been cranking up for at least 32 years.

While it’s not exactly the tip of an iceberg, it very well may be the tip of an ocean.

This has something significant in common with burning hair.

(yes, it really is a feather)

It owes a lot to being sandwiched between a rock and a hard place (that’s not so hard, really)…

… and to being perturbed.

As distinct as this thing is in itself, it sits on something that really draws comments.

Image by Koomori No Kisaki

There you go.  How’s that for a fine collection of confusion?  You know where to find me.

complex math problem solved