tfdl

Does every vote really count? Well yes and no. In landslide districts like the Bay Area maybe not. In this increasingly polarized political atmosphere, however, each vote may count more than ever.
Consider this: Pennsylvania has a voting population of 4,858,104 in 67 counties. The state assembly was evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans while a recount was performed in one final district – Chester County. Te result? The Democratic candidate won by 23 votes.
So, the answer may be that yes, every vote does count, but we never know for sure exactly how much it counts. In this case every vote counted more than the voters could have imagined.
Details here.

Posted by Edd at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is an article in the Guardian about the reclamation plans for Hetch Hetchy – the valley in the Sierra that John Muir thought more beautiful than Yosemite Valley.

When first told of plans to dam it he [Muir] replied: 'Dam Hetch Hetchy? [One might] as well dam for water tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.'

What also captured our attention was the reference in the article about how reclamation of such environmental disasters will be the defining task of the generation of our children’s children
We can only hope that we have not set the bar to high.

Posted by Edd at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back in the day we could say that we learned all those cuss words in the gutter where we were with the gutter snipes that we were not supposed to be with. Now it seems that kids can learn these words from toys. A policeman talking doll apparently says the f-word every time his nightstick is taken from him. A testy cop no doubt. A three- year old began imitating his role model. Toys-R-Us blamed it on a “faulty chip”.
That and more in the SF Chronicle’s Bondage page.

Posted by Edd at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Almost twenty years ago, we received a note from my son’s first-grade teacher one day. The note said that he had asked her this question: “Where is reality?”, and she wrote that she did not know what to say.
It is still an intriguing question. Maybe better than its sibling: What is reality? Neuroscience is an amazing new field. If I had had the kind of brain that could understand the brain, I would have liked to have studied that in my youth.
And just when we thought this was all some California woo-woo, What the Bleep kind of thing, along comes some scientists at the University of Manchester in the UK who did some experiments with Virtual Reality (VR) on amputees with phantom limb pain. Turns out that, when these patients experience a 3-D simulation with all their limbs intact, they can trick the brain into thinking that the limb is still there. They are able to reduce and even eliminate the pain that way.
So, it is still a good question – Where’s reality?
Here is the article.

Posted by Edd at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I cast my ballot… Barbara Lee still speaks for me, the irrepressible Jerry Brown may become Attorney General of California – I think Jerry will eventually run for a seat on the rent stabilization board!

But here is the best bit. I got to vote on the following resolution:

"Shall the City of Berkeley call upon the United States House of Representatives to initiate proceedings for the impeachment and removal from office of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney, call upon the California State Legislature to submit a Resolution in support of impeachment to the United States House of Representatives, and establish a Temporary Task Force on Impeachment?"

Sweet!

Posted by Edd at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)