Political website

Here's a couple of great sites that keep up with all the polls so you don't have to: www.electoral-vote.com and www.fivethirtyeight.com. Neither conducts its own polls, but takes the reports of the various polls and compiles the information. They seem to both have a Democratic undertone in the reporting, but the number-crunching is impartial, especially the latter.

Only 41 days until Election Day, get excited!

Influence

This week I'm wrapping up a book called Influence, by Dr. Robert Cialdini. It's an amazing book about how people are manipulated or pried into action by leveraging our natural instincts. The psycho-social behaviors of listening to authority and maintaining consistency are good and normal in everyday use, but are manipulated in advertisements and by salespersons to coax our money out of our wallets.

Why do attractive women adorn the pages of car ads? Because as men develop a positive thought towards the woman, it is automatically transferred to the car. Why do medicine companies use doctors in ads? Because we defer to authority when it comes to science. Why do telemarketers ask us how our day is going right up front? Because if we start with a positive comment, we're more likely to have a positive impression of them and be more willing to purchase a product from them. It's a tough cycle.

These psychological experiments are utilized in the political sphere as well, perhaps none as often as the rule of similarity. This simply means that people are more likely to support somebody similar to themselves - hence the constant 'common man' arguments and decrying the opponent as 'out of touch' or 'elite'. It's obvious when you think about it, but the fact is that a small enough percentage think about it and so political campaigns keep pouring it on.

I give the book my fullest recommendation, as it's an excellent exploration and explanation of those moments when you say "why did I just do/think that?" Check it out, and start to learn how to combat some of these natural behaviors.

College Football season really begins tomorrow

It's one of the most exciting seasons of the year - college football is back! Last week was opening weekend, with a number of games and a few surprising results. However, with six programs off (and obviously my alma mater, ND), I hadn't quite caught the college football spirit yet. Well, with just over 24 hours until kickoff, I can officially say that I'm ridiculously excited to start the season. Chris, my roommate, and I are already making plans for "tailgating" on our balcony and planned out most of the day.

I've reconnected with a lot of fellow alums in the last couple weeks in a pattern that I'm beginning to recognize. Each fall I spend significantly more time with ND friends than I do the rest of the year. It makes sense, as the gamewatches draw us all together and thus have a reason to unite and cheer together. May not be the best thing that we lose touch through the other eight months, but it's a compromise with busy lives; at least we get to remain friends for four months.

In short, and because I should get back to work, I wanted to wish all teams (especially ND and Nebraska) a good, healthy, exciting season. I wish all of our opponents at least one loss each, and can't wait to participate in the BD Poll this year (I'll have links). Gameday, here we come!

Large Hadron Collider

September 10 is the most important day for science in a really long time. Specifically, atomic theory and particle physics. For years, France and Switzerland have been building a 17-mile circumference underground tunnel that will be used to move particles faster than ever before, traveling that circle 11,000 times per second. The Large Hadron Collider is expected to confirm or completely alter theories about fundamental physics on the quest for the Grand Unified Theory.

All parties agree that this LHC will most likely create black holes. While the vast majority of scientists and observers say they will disappear within seconds, a few have expressed great concern and believe it could create a world-ending scenario. Not likely. What is incredible about this is that scientists will be able to test something that they have only theorized about for years.

My excitement stems from the fact that scientific theories in recent years have gotten more and more theoretical and less empirical, due to inabilities to prove the existence of mini-dimensions, strings, etc. Moving away from evidence and trusting mathematical theorems is a bad shift for science, so this will help redirect scientific inquiry towards the seeable and knowable once more. These collisions will give visual evidence of some of the theories that most people cannot understand, thus increasing the knowledge base of billions of people around the world. This is a very good thing.

Can't wait for nine more days to pass to see the first results of this incredible scientific undertaking. Unless, of course, the black holes do swallow our planet.

VP Selection

Not sure about McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as VP. Seems like where Obama strengthened his credentials and team with Biden, this doesn't bring much experience at all to the ticket. I recognize the desire to bring a woman on the ticket as a potential move to pick up Hillary's supporters, but I have a hard time believing that Hillary's supporters, who loved her experience and pro-choice stance, will vote for an inexperienced pro-lifer. It will surprise me tremendously if this helps McCain's push for the White House.

Wireless Energy

Wouldn't it be cool to not have to ever plug in your cell phone? That when you got home, just setting it on your table or desk would begin to recharge it? That dream is close to becoming reality. A number of companies, most prominently Powercast, are already selling products that do this. The shortcoming is that very few mass-market products are available with this technology embedded in it. Once one of the cell phone companies takes a chance, I think they'll have a surprisingly successful product and cell phone chargers will never be the same. Just think - instead of five people fighting for an outlet to each use their charger, they could plug in a single wireless charger and charge five phones at once.

The technology has potential outside of cell phones and digital cameras as well. Televisions would be capable of running on this technology, as would many of the low-energy items in our homes. Just think - that horrendous knot of wires behind your entertainment center for the TV, DVD player, Wii, Cable box, speaker system, and Playstation could be entirely eliminated, replaced by one wireless energy dispenser.

I look forward to the day this becomes technologically feasible.

Left vs. Right

It amazes me sometimes how much political groups are willing to distort the facts for their own use. Granted, sometimes they have valid points - but this one was just ridiculous. A conservative group is trying to link Obama with Ayers, a radical from the 1960s, due to some community building activities they participated in together in the 1990s, when Obama was a community organizer and Ayers was a professor at UIC. It negatively accuses them of being together to work on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which was funded with "the intention of establishing community partnerships that would improve schools." How can this be spun to be a negative thing?!? Trying to unite the community to improve schools - this does not translate to "they're plotting horrible anti-America propaganda." Fear and hatred are seeping through, and it's pretty transparent.