another follow-up to a prior post…yay! and this one goes aaaall the way back to march 2003, when i posted about a giant flying death laser the military was developing to shoot down missiles and bring vicious burning death to small woodland creatures. a year and a half later, the militarys finally tested out the giant laser, albeit not yet in a flying 747. the “first light” was a success, which means that theyll be progressing with the testing phase…mounting it in a plane, making it so the focusing optics dont destroy themselves, etc. pretty soon we’ll have vicious flying laser death rays to add to our arsenal of cruise missiles, rail guns, and jehovahs witnesses.
BUSH VS. SCIENCE
speaking of scientific progress, americas gonna be taking a couple steps backwards in the next four years…word. wired has an enlightening article on bush vs. the scientific community. i particularly like how the title of the article is “science braces for second term“. to be honest, its actually quite a depressing article to read. given the past four years, none of it is too surprising. but its still pretty disheartening when all the scientific progress bush has and will continue to piss on is laid out so clearly in front of you. stem-cell research, global climate changes, renewable-energy research, and science education…bush seems to have some kind of misguided desire to blast america back into the stone age.
FUCK THE SOUTH
and since the pain of the election still lingers in many…this funny rant on why the south sucks balls (via the real janelle). its a pretty damning indictment of southern culture, picking apart piece by piece their oft-cited stances and issues and how they perceive us northeastern carpet-baggers. this includes the traditional foundations of america (the 13 original colonies were you know…new england and all), federal taxes (the states who primarily pay the most are blue states), and supposed superior southern moral values (their divorce rates are actually higher). ah, a fun read. for an even more unforgiving and unrelenting assault on the south (read: bush supporters), theres also the urban archipelago, which looks at the primary social gaps that exist not between blue and red states, but actually urban and rural communities.
SMART STATES
look, another convenient segue! speaking of the states, ive always been curious about those forwards you get that break down the average iq’s of the 50 states, and then who they voted for in the 2004 elections. they seemed a bit too convenient, with all the higher iq states voting kerry and all the idiots voting bush (as unsurprising as it was). i had also read a few rebuttals around the net that stated that the lists were completely fictional…that its rather impossible to gauge the average iq of any particular state. too bad eh. but hey, the morgan quitno press did just come out with their annual list of the smartest states in america the other day. so we’ll just compile our own list…yay to that! the list btw, is actually determined by a list of factors pertaining to the states educational system and how they compare to the national average. its a nice characterization of the quality of education the state provides, which in turn makes for smarter residents. whatever, lets break it down yo…
…CONTINUED > THE FUN LIST
as the article points out, massachusetts is number one again for the second consecutive year, while new mexico is dead last for the third year in a row. go new mexico! so as follows, the list of the states, cross-referenced with who the state gave their electoral votes to in the 2004 elections. this is fun…
| 1. massachusetts 2. connecticut 3. vermont 4. new jersey 5. wisconsin 6. new york 7. minnesota 8. iowa 9. pennsylvania 10. montana 11. maine 12. virginia 13. nebraska 14. new hampshire 15. kansas 16. wyoming 17. indiana 18. maryland 19. north dakota 20. ohio 21. colorado 22. south dakota 23. rhode island 24. illinois 25. north carolina 26. missouri 27. delaware 28. utah 29. idaho 30. washington 31. michigan 32. south carolina 33. texas (tie) 33. west virginia (tie) 35. oregon 36. arkansas 37. kentucky 38. georgia 39. florida 40. oklahoma 41. tennessee 42. hawaii 43. california 44. alabama 45. Alaska 46. Louisiana 47. Mississippi 48. Arizona 49. Nevada 50. New Mexico | > kerry > kerry > kerry > kerry > kerry > kerry > kerry > bush > kerry > bush > kerry > bush > bush > kerry > bush > bush > bush > kerry > bush > bush > bush > bush > kerry > kerry > bush > bush > kerry > bush > bush > kerry > kerry > bush > bush > bush > kerry > bush > bush > bush > bush > bush > bush > kerry > kerry > bush > bush > bush > bush > bush > bush > bush |
so its not as damning as the other list…but its still pretty telling how 8 of the top 10 states were kerry states. word’em up.
> big stonkin’ lasers (via cnn)
> bush vs. science (via wired)
> fuck the south (via the real janelle)
> the urban archipelago
> the smartest states (via netscape/cnn)