Happy Valentine's Day

As we all enjoy our unofficial holiday of love, it is jarring to read about Saudi Arabia's plans to execute a woman for the 'crime' of witchcraft:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23162712/

Saudi Arabia - close ally of the Bush clan, source of most of the 9/11 terrorists and one of the most sexually repressed countries on earth is a very good place not to be on Valentine's Day!

Primary politics

It looks as if Obama is going to chalk up more big wins in VA, MD and DC today, all areas that Hillary probably thought she would do well in. Voting is reportedly very heavy - which is a good sign for Obama. In previous elections, the so-called "black" vote has never fulfilled the promise that its numbers would suggest it has. Black Democrats have never voted as religiously as say white Republicans - but this year looks different. If the black Democrats can make it to the polls in November in the same numbers they are getting to the polls now, the Republicans will lose the White House for sure.

I think Obama or Clinton both would be good Presidents, certainly light years ahead of the brain-damaged ex-pothead idiot we currently have. But I must say I am pleased that Obama seems to be pulling ahead. It has troubled me that America has been flipping back and forth between two ruling families for so long - that is not the America I know. That is the sort of thing that happens in a banana republic or third world country, not a major democracy with millions of talented citizens.

More than one sci-fi writer has already mentioned President Chelsea Clinton in their near future stories. Let's not limit our possibilities quite yet...

The population of space

I have updated my page on the population of "space" to reflect the current mission of the Atlantis.

http://www.neoscifi.com/SPACEPOP.html

Incidentally, the station will be extra visible in the early evening/early morning sky for the next few days while Atlantis is joined to it. Check the sighting opportunities at the NASA site below, and see if you have a chance to catch a glimpse of the extra bright, always growing station...

http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/

I'll try harder...

I will attempt to post more stuff, more often, and follow up better on my topics. Hmm, the best blogs, like John Scalzi's "Whatever" blog usually have four or five new posts each day, and attract dozens of comments and replies too. Having a blog with one post a month, will never reach that level of involvement and interest, so I shall attempt to change my ways, beginning NOW.

For a follow up on my concert vending job, here is an update on the shows from the last six weeks or so:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=133863738

and that link will also show updates on the shows that I work as I post the updates.

Nerd Alert - Eternity II - (almost) impossible

This post will reveal the depths of my nerd-dom, in case any one still hasn't figured that out.

This day I purchased myself a new way to waste time - the Eternity II puzzle. The deal with this is that it is one of these math things - it has a solution, but there are so many billion-gazillion-pentillion-willion NON-solutions, that there is really almost no chance of finding a good solution. Go ahead, use computers, that is allowed. The maker of the game even offers up a two million dollar prize to the first person to correctly solve it and follow some simple instructions on mailing the solution in. The only catch, is you have to solve it before 2010 ends. It is that hard, even using banks of super fast computers, the game maker figures his odds of paying out the prize money aren't all bad.

Anything THAT crazy is of course going to appeal to my nerd side.

The puzzle is only 256 pieces, an exact square made of littler squares in a 16 by 16 grid. Each piece has a design and color on each edge that must be lined up with a matching piece on all sides, and there is a gray border that must be built around the outside edge. One piece in the middle is given to you, and you have to use that piece in that spot (which actually makes the puzzle harder).

Let's see, the middle of the puzzle is 14 pieces by 14 pieces, with one piece given. That leaves 195 pieces to place in the middle, or 195! (195 factorial) ways to place them. But of course, each piece can also be turned four different ways, so the total number of ways to build just the middle, is really (195!)*(4 to the power of 195), which is a very big number. And then the 60 pieces that make up the edge can also be placed a bunch of possible ways, so I better get working on it. I will come back to this topic again, as my efforts hopefully show some results...