Don't have much to say, but I updated my subtitle and added a link. Micromoe is a friend of mine, and I recommend checking out some of the music he's got posted.

I'm thinking it's about time to have a party so people can see my place.

Google 'Related Searches' has changed my life. Well, ok maybe only a little bit, but still. (warning, I'm about to do another of my ever-popular 'this is how we should vote' posts.)

Google told me a related search to my blog was tactical voting. It's the practice of voting not for the candidate you sincerely prefer, but because you believe it's the vote most likely to produce a favorable outcome. This lead me to read about Approval Voting where you put a mark next to every candidate you think would be allright. It has some good advantages (see the linked article for good descriptions) but one I had never considered was that it is pretty compatible with existing voting infrastructures.

Tactical voting seems so insincere to me. I'd love to be able to vote for a candidate I actually like without increasing the chances of a candidate I definitely don't like being elected.

Academic Economist Studies Everquest

So this somewhat failed economist got hooked on Everquest (an online fantasy based role-playing game). He suddenly had this brainstorm that because Everquest items were being sold for real currency that he could legitamately apply economic theory to the online world. It's as though Everquest is another country with its own internal economy and industry. He did some calculations and got some interesting results. He averaged some online to real transactions and calculated an exchange rate of about 100 EQ platinum pieces(PP) to 1 USD. That makes EQPP a stronger currency than the Japanese Yen! Average EQ player income about 3.50 USD/hour. Better than minimum wage a lot of places. It turns out that Everquest is about the 77th strongest economy in the world!

It's a very long article but well worth the read if you're interested in online games. Here is the professor's professional page and a list of publications you can download and read.

This was covered on Slashdot today, too so sorry if this is redundant for you slashdorks.

The eye of Sauron is REAL!

Ok, really this is the Nautilus Laser weapon system. Yeah, a laser gun. It successfully shot down some missles and stuff. It's looking like an effective anti-missile system. And we (the US) helped Israel develop it. So now we've not only given Israel nukes, we've also made them missile proof. Here's a recent article about it from MSNBC, from whom the picture also comes.