link me up!

Hey — So after a few days off, I decided to get back on the horse and give another post for you to enjoy. However, it’s more just a spattering of links that I’ve found in the past week that I’ve enjoyed reading/viewing and wanted to share, so I hope you enjoy!

Last week I ran across these two clips of alternate ways (other than the basic “up and down” method you probably used growing up) to multiple large numbers. They’re pretty sweet to see, though I prefer (like most of us, I suppose) what I know.

Ever think of taking a year off to travel? I have — and still might. Here are some good, though not very detailed, tips one person found important.

Where to live? A recurring question in my life. I came across a place of the 10 Best Places to Live (based not on what I need in such a place) and then a nice 2006 ranking (2007 soon to come, it seems) of good places for singles to live (Chicago not even in the top 20, but Milwaukee, the Twin Cities, Columbus, Balt/DC, and Seattle did make the cut). Check it out if you’re single and thinking about where to live any time soon…  (And what I think is a more current listing of Best Cities for Young Professionals by Forbes.)

And if you’re looking for something a little more in depth, check out this article about a Late Night Shots, “a very exclusive, invite-only social-networking Web site” began in DC and now in a few other cities, too. It’s quite to ride (the article, and the club, it seems), and has even sparked a blog about the group. Needless to say, I won’t be joining up when I hit DC next month :)

And an interesting news blurb about how teenage girls talking excessively about their problems can actually lead to long term anxiety (without a similar result for boys).

Do you have any more links/articles of interest? I’m always looking for interesting things to read

a coin toss (and counting)

So apparently flipping a coin isn’t as “random” as we thought it was. Or so it might seem. This old NPR story talks about how flipping a coin the same way every time leads to the same result. But wouldn’t that make sense if you’re using the same coin that it would do the same thing each time? I randomness, as the story says, comes in the “human element,” and still isn’t perfectly 50/50 when you flip it and catch it in your hand. I guess this would be a good example of theoretical versus statistical probability, eh?

Also, I wanted to share this wonderful site I found yesterday via The 9 I sometimes watch on Yahoo!  Believe it or not, this guy is counting to One Million (that’s 1,000,000 if you need the visual).  He’s thus far been counting for 25 days and has reached 300,000 last night before turning in.  You can donate money to Push America, an organization that works to improve the lives of people with disabilities.  Check this guy out — what a feat!

messages to no one in particular

Who hasn’t wanted to do this: take some helium balloons and fly? As the article says, hasn’t everyone who’s ever held such a balloon thought, “What if this pulled me up into the sky?”

If you’re like me, you might also wonder where helium balloons land once they’ve been floating in the sky for hours and hours: do they head high into the atmosphere and somehow burn or deteriorate, or do they land somewhere hours away?

When I was growing up (before the though of anything such as environmental impact of letting go of latex balloons crossed my mind), our Sunday School would release balloons with messages on them, thinking the balloon might be found and the person might be touched. In this day and age, I suppose one could write an e-mail address or website on the balloon and see if anyone found it, but I have no idea what happened to those messages we set off 15 or so years ago.

When I was in Chicago, I thought about doing a sociological experiment where I left stamped letters on the El to see if people would send them or look at them or they might get thrown away. If I received a letter back, I could at least check the postmark to see from where the letter had originated. Inside I’d put some kind of message about the experiment in case someone opened it so they might contact me or let me know their curiosity had gotten the best of them, and if I didn’t get them back, I’d assume they became trash. With postal rates on up to 41 cents a letter, it would be a semi-expensive endeavor to stamp 100 letters (probably $50 with the envelopes and paper). Maybe I’ll still do it sometime soon, or if you try it, let me know how it goes.

a spiritual concert

Looking back now, it seems almost predestined to have happened this way. I discovered The Polyphonic Spree somewhat serendipitously while looking @ “Baroque Pop” bands, a sub-genre of music I’ve recently discovered I very much enjoy, on the Internet. An article about an upcoming visit to Milwaukee in a local free paper caught my eye regarding them again, and when I decided to attend, the scene had been set.

I didn’t expect to have a spiritual experience, but there I was, 90 minutes into the show, getting goosebumps. The band, all 23 of them, created a powerhouse of songs that led one to the next with little or no time between songs for all 60 minutes of their amazing hour-long set. When the lead singer, Tim DeLaughter, announced that it was time to go, I knew it wasn’t enough and even one or two more encore songs wouldn’t fill me for the evening. Luckily, they didn’t have to.

After a wait that started to make we wonder what was up, the Spree descended a side stairway, changed from their blue army fatigue gear, which included a heart patch over their own hearts, into white choir robes and snaked through the crowd, giving high fives and shaking hands as the found their way back to the stage for what amounted to a second set rather than simply and encore.

Maybe it was the robes that took me to the spiritual then, or maybe it was the message of love and hope and truth that pervaded each song, but I was transcended to another place as I chanted, “Love, love, love,” along with the hundreds of other concert-goers. The Nirvana song “Lithium” got us all jumping around and singing as if there were no tomorrow, or as if we could sing forever. It was truly a “wall of sound,” with, get this: a lead singer, flute/piccolo/slide whistle, keyboard, synthesizer, trombone, two trumpets, two violins, cello, harp (really), bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drum set, percussionist, and 7-woman vocal chorus.  I’ve listened to some of their stuff online, and it no where matches the audio experience of seeing them live, not to mention the spiritual and emotional experiences that I had.

So what does this say about spirituality to me?  Well, I definitely felt connected to a higher power in this “non-Christian” music.  Christianity hasn’t a corner on the “faith, hope, and love,” market, and as this review of a NY concert states, “Maybe those of us alienated by religion’s abuse in the name of war and exclusion need militant cries of love and community.”

No matter one’s faith or spirituality this evening, we all came together and believed as one that the would might be a better place if we all just loved.  And isn’t that what religion is all about?

pardon me (or at least some clemency, please)

You may or may not be aware of all the events surrounding the CIA leak case and the subsequent imprisonment of White House aide “Scooter” Libby. In any case, when President Bush decided to commute his sentence earlier this week, it got me thinking a little bit about the president’s ability to basically undo what a judge, jury, or the courts have done when they convict someone. Bush is, by no means, the only president to use this kind of power (think Gereld Ford “helping out” some guy by the name of Richard Nixon), so it’s more about the power itself than anything else. Should someone have the power to pardon, i.e. “let off the hook,” someone who has committed a crime?

In Illinois, this privilege was used by the governor to commute the death sentences of death row inmates to life in prison, making sure no executions would take place. Even then, in a move that sought to make sure no one would be killed who might have been convicted inappropriately, some might say this executive power was used improperly.

So the question then becomes twofold: Should the power to pardon or grant clemency be available at all, and if so, how does one decided what the proper uses are for such a power?

I’d argue that helping out a friend in the political world is probably not the proper use of such power, but who am I to be the judge of that, right? If I, as president or governor think a judge or jury made the wrong call, why should I have the power to change it? Was I @ the trial? Probably not, but that apparently doesn’t mean anything. Is it any wonder why Americans’ confidence in Congress at All-Time Low, or that so many people don’t vote in our elections? We grant this huge power to our legislative and executive branches, but 1/2 the people don’t vote.

(I’ll probably get me a CIA file for writing this or something, but anyway…) It’s time for a revolution, people, and that involves making conscious decisions about who you vote for, where you shop, how you spend your time, and so much else. Will we all stand up and demand change, or will we let the rich, white, males who have ruled this country for 225+ years continue to do as they see fit with no repercussions?