Steve Benson

via This is Rumor Control

Posted at 06:16 PM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wow! This is an impressive bit of graphicology!

click for larger chart

chart courtesy of Washington Post

via Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/graphics/cbsdocs_091804.html

Posted at 06:28 AM in Media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Just when thought music journalism couldn't possibly get anymore superficial or petty, along comes the Riverfront Times to prove you wrong. Its snarky article "The Ten Most Hated Men in Rock (Besides Sting)", while not particularly enlightening, is at least mildly amusing.

Here's the list; Go read the entire article, if you at all give a shit . . .

1. Paul McCartney
2. Carlos Santana
3. Jimmy Buffett
4. The Adams Family (Ryan & Bryan)
5. Elton John
6. Johnny Rzeznik
7. G.E. Smith
8. Conor Oberst & Chris Carrabba
9. Fred Durst
10. Bob Weir

Rounding out the Top Twenty: 11. Glenn Frey & Don Henley. 12. Scott Stapp. 13. Rod Stewart. 14. Phil Collins. 15. Lenny Kravitz. 16. Steve Miller. 17. John Cougar Mellencamp. 18. Michael McDonald. 19. Max Weinberg. 20. Lars Ulrich.

Honorable Mention: Eric Clapton, Anthony Kiedis, Kid Rock, Scott Weiland, Liam & Noel Gallagher, Zack de la Rocha, Peter Gabriel, Kenny Loggins, George Thorogood, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bruce Springsteen, Axl Rose, James Hetfield, Ozzy Osbourne, Steve Winwood, Bruce Hornsby, Billy Joel, Dave Matthews, John Popper, Julian Casablancas, Jack White, Rob Thomas, Huey Lewis, Jackson Browne, Dave Grohl, Chris Cornell, Mark McGrath, Melissa Etheridge and the lead singer of Maroon 5 (we're too indifferent to even bother learning his name).

Sources:
The Ten Most Hated Men in Rock (Besides Sting)
BY MIKE SEELY
Riverfront Times Sep 01, 2004
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/issues/2004-09-01/music.html

Posted at 06:19 AM in Humor, Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wicked cool: "Welcome to the National Climatic Data Center's (NCDC) Historical Significant Events Imagery database (HSEI)! In here you will find hundreds of selected satellite images capturing some of the more important weather and environmental events over the last 30 years"

Click on "What's new" for the most recent satellite photos of recent hurricanes.

Really quite spectacular photos like this one:

Click for larger graphic

Sources:
National Climatic Data Center's (NCDC) Historical Significant Events Imagery database
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov

Hurricane Ivan just before it makes landfall
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/images/ivan091504-2015z.jpg

Posted at 09:40 PM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Can you really increase your iPod battery by 70%?

That's the assertion of NewerTech: "The NewerTech battery is the highest capacity iPod battery on the market and provides 70 percent more capacity than standard Apple stock batteries. It is available immediately for US$39.95."

Here's engadget's write up:

"It was nice of Apple to up the battery life on the new iPod to 12 hours from the sorta dismal 8 hours of juice the earlier ones got, but if you’re not quite ready to drop $300 or $400 to upgrade, NewerTech has a new replacement battery for first and second generation iPods that adds an extra 70% of battery capacity. The iPod originally came with a 1230mAh rated battery, while this Ultra High Capacity version tops out at almost double that, 2100mAh. Easily worth the $40 if it’s really that good."

It would be way cool if it works as advertised . . .

For sale at Other World Computing

via engadget

Posted at 06:33 PM in Design | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

President Bush continues to lead John Kerry in most polls released since the Republican National Convention, but his bounce seems to be fading somewhat.

In fact, in the two most recent surveys, taken by Harris Interactive and Investor's Business Daily, Mr. Kerry leads or is tied with Mr. Bush. The two major newsweeklies released their second post-convention polls earlier this week, and while Mr. Bush maintained his advantage of 10 percentage points in the Time poll, his lead narrowed to six percentage points in a reading from Newsweek.

Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney also lost ground to Mr. Kerry and his running mate, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, in a new Zogby poll, which they only led by four percentage points, but the pair had a nine-point advantage in AP-Ipsos survey.

Note the progression in polling data from the RNC to the present . . .

Harris poll

Bush Cheney         47
Kerry-Edwards       48
Nader Camejo         2
Not Sure/Refused     3

Sept. 9-13, 2004. 867 likely voters nationwide.
Margin of error +/- 4 percentage points. Investor's Business Daily/Christian Science Monitor/TIPP poll

Bush Cheney       46
Kerry-Edwards     46
Nader-Camejo       3
Not Sure           5

Sept. 7-12, 2004. 674 likely voters nationwide.
Margin of error +/- 3.5 percentage points. Newsweek poll

Bush Cheney        49
Kerry-Edwards      43
Nader-Camejo        2
Other/Undecided     6

Sept. 9-10, 2004. 1,003 registered voters nationwide.
Margin of error +/- 4 percentage points. Zogby America poll

Bush Cheney       46
Kerry-Edwards     42
Nader-Camejo       2
Other/Unsure      10

Sept. 8-9, 2004. 1,018 likely voters nationwide.
Margin of error +/- 3.1 percentage points. Time poll

Bush Cheney       52
Kerry-Edwards     42
Nader-Camejo       3
Unsure             4

Sept. 7-9, 2004. 857 likely voters nationwide.
Margin of error +/- 4 percentage points. Associated Press/Ipsos poll

Bush Cheney       52
Kerry-Edwards     43
Nader-Camejo       2
Other/None/Unsure  3

Sept. 7-9, 2004. 800 likely voters nationwide.
Margin of error +/- 3.5 percentage points.

Source: the polls; PollingReport.com

Sources:
Bush's Lead Narrowing In Post-Convention Polls
September 16, 2004 3:27 p.m.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108792552424744155,00.html

Posted at 08:45 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Sen. John Kerry and President Bush are now enjoying almost equal levels of support, according to the latest Harris Interactive poll.

Immediately after the Republican convention in New York, several polls showed Mr. Bush jumping ahead of Mr. Kerry with a clear lead of between six and 11 percentage points. There's no such "convention bounce" for the president in the latest poll by Harris.

The Harris poll, conducted by telephone Sept. 9-13, shows Sen. Kerry leading Mr. Bush 48% to 47% among likely voters nationwide. The poll also found that a slender 51% to 45% majority doesn't believe that Mr. Bush deserves to be re-elected.

The previous poll in which likely U.S. voters were asked which candidate they preferred showed Messrs. Kerry and Bush tied 47% to 47%. That survey was conducted before the Republican National Convention in New York City, which ended earlier this month. An earlier poll in June indicated a Bush lead over Mr. Kerry of 10 percentage points, at 51% to 41%.

The latest poll was conducted within the U. S. among a nationwide cross section of 1,018 adults. It has a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points.

The results echo a recent poll sponsored by Investor's Business Daily, which also showed that the gap between the U.S. presidential candidates has disappeared. The poll of likely voters showed the two candidates tied at 47% in a two-man race and tied at 46% if independent candidate Ralph Nader is included.

Here are the results of the latest Harris poll:

"If the next presidential election were held today between George W. Bush for the Republicans, John Kerry for the Democrats and Ralph Nader as an Independent, for whom would you most likely vote?"*

Base: Likely Voters

	April	June	August	Now
George Bush	46%	51%	47%	47%
John Kerry	43	41	47	48
Ralph Nader	8	6	3	2
None of these	1	*	*	*
Not sure/Refused	2	1	3	3
Bush Lead	+3	+10	0	-1

*If respondent said "not sure/refused," question was reworded: "Well, if you had to say, would you lean toward George W. Bush, John Kerry, or Ralph Nader?"

NOTE: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

* * *

"Based on who he is and his record, do you think George W. Bush deserves to be re-elected for another four years?"

Base: Likely Voters

	Total
Deserves to be re elected	45%
Does not deserve to be re-elected	51
Not sure/Refused	4

Sources:
Harris Poll Shows Tight Presidential Race
The WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
September16,2004
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB109526872487418642,00.html

Posted at 01:29 PM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Got too many GMail invites? Need one?

Problem solved.

Welcome to isnoop.net's gmail invite spooler. This page offers a place for people with Gmail invites and those who want them to come together with minimal effort and fuss.         

via boingboing

UPDATE:  February 17, 2005  11:29pm

Go to town, kids!!

Thanks for signing up to be updated on the latest Gmail happenings. We hope it's been worth the wait, because we're excited to finally offer you an invitation to open a free Gmail account! Just click on this link to create your new account:

http://gmail.google.com/gmail/d-2-ritholtz%40optonline.net-2411f89e48d348283f8a7d9c87900a7459eda0cc

Posted at 07:27 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (87) | TrackBack

A global overview of spammers, by locale:

Click for larger graphic

Note that anyone not making cars or electronics on the Korean peninsula is apparently a spammer.

via linkfilter
http://postini.com/stats/map_window_spam.html

Posted at 06:20 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

If Europeans could vote in the U.S. presidential election, they would pick John Kerry over George W. Bush by a nearly 6-to-1 majority, the latest HI Europe poll shows.

President Bush is supported by less than 7% of adults in three of five European countries in the survey. These countries also had the largest majorities who said they would choose Mr. Kerry over Mr. Bush: Germany, 69% to 6%; France, 63% to 4%; and Spain, 57% to 5%.

Not only do most European adults prefer Mr. Kerry over Mr. Bush, the survey indicated, but 62% of those polled also believe Mr. Kerry will defeat Mr. Bush in the presidential election.

However, the survey of adults in Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain also found that 27% of people in these countries are undecided -- far more than in the U.S.

In Britain, where Prime Minister Tony Blair has been the strongest and most visible supporter of the war in Iraq, Mr. Kerry leads Mr. Bush by a more modest 36 % to 12% plurality, with fully 45% still undecided.

Here are the results of the latest poll:

"Are you aware that in November there will be a presidential election in the U.S.?"

Base: All Adults

	Total	Great Britain	France	Germany	Spain	Italy
Yes	85%	79%	85%	86%	85%	88%
No	15	21	15	14	15	12

* * *

"If you were given the opportunity, for which of the following would you vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential election?"

Base: All Adults

	Total	Great Britain	France	Germany	Spain	Italy
John Kerry (Democratic)	56%	36%	63%	69%	57%	52%
George W. Bush (Republican)	9	12	4	6	5	18
Ralph Nader (Independent)	5	5	4	5	7	5
Other	4	1	5	3	5	4
Not Sure	27	45	25	17	26	21

Note: Numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

* * *

"Regardless of whom you want to win, which one of the following do you think will actually win the upcoming U.S. presidential election?"

Base: All Adults

	Total	Great Britain	France	Germany	Spain	Italy
John Kerry (Democratic)	62%	42%	68%	68%	66%	65%
George W. Bush (Republican)	16	26	11	14	12	18
Neither	2	2	2	2	1	2
Not Sure	20	29	20	16	20	15

Note: Numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

Methodology: This survey was conducted online by HI Europe Aug. 11-17, 2004, among the following nationwide cross sections of adults aged 16 and over: 1,032 in Great Britain; 1,011 in France; 1,056 in Germany; 1,028 in Italy and 974 in Spain. Figures for region, age, sex, education and income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online. In theory, with probability samples of these sizes, one could say with 95% certainty that the results in each: Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy have a statistical precision of +/-3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire populations in those countries had been polled with complete accuracy.

Sources:
Europeans Overwhelmingly Favor Kerry for President
The Harris Poll
Wall Street Journal, September14,2004
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109509053137416313,00.html

Posted at 05:55 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack