In "An Associated Press item about the conviction of two poll workers [nytimes]"

They were supposed randomly select a small sample of ballots and then recount them in public. If the sample's recount did not match the original totals, then a full recount would be done. They picked a sample that they knew would match.

Sorry about the duplicate post. I just hit the key twice.

In "And Now For Something Completely Political"

$1,000,000 for each dead Iraqi? Seriously? Why didn't they just pick random Iraqis and give $100,000 to them and nine of their friends? I don't know much about Iraqi culture but I'm guessing that we'd have won quite a few hearts and minds. Plus we wouldn't have all that blood on our hands.

In "The world's largest landing craft is offloading now."

There have been fuel leaks totaling about 265 gallons. Although her bunkers have been largely drawn off, hull cracks cracks have led to leaks at low tide from fuel-contaminated ballast. Mexico's environmental watchdog agency, known as PROFEPA has sought court orders to arrest the vessel. What does arrest mean in this sentence? I don't think that that vessel is going anywhere and if I were the mexican government I wouldn't want to take ownership of the thing anytime soon either.

In "Help a guy propose to his girlfriend."

No. The one time in my life I wanted to get married I was close to broke.I bought a cheap $200 dollar ring and flew to Venice to propose. It didn't work out but it wasn't because I didn't have a snazzy ring. If you don't have enough game to make your true love happy enough to say yes without a big rock, then you need to go back to relationship school or find another true love.

In "A Nice Picture?"

Another Oktoberfest picture that's pretty cool once you realize who it's a picture of.

In "Batter 'em"

Great whites are the most lethal to humans. Since 1876 there have been 254 confirmed nonprovoked attacks on humans by great whites, 67 of which were fatal, according to statistics see - this is exactly my point - there are thousands of people who fight off sharks every week yet don't feel it a cause to go showing off about it. They may mention it to family members or close friends, but it's not unusual to get into a tangle with a shark. These people get excluded from the statistics, unfortunately, and we build up a biased picture. Huh? The passage you quote says that about 25% of great white attacks are fatal. The people who live through great white attacks do not survive because they're smarter or tougher than the shark. They survive because the shark lets them go. Thankfully, shark attacks are rare events. I spent a decade surfing in Santa Cruz. During that time none of my friends were attacked by a great white. I'm pretty sure that if one of them had been had been attacked and was lucky enough to have survived then I would had heard about it. I would have heard about it, the local television station would have heard about it, and every person who happened to sit down next to them at a bar would have heard about it. One of the things we have to accept when we paddle out into the ocean is that we're not at the top of food chain. It doesn't matter how smart we are or how macho or how experienced we are. It's not our house and anyone with an ounce of sense accepts that.

A good overview that contains actual facts.

Oh by the way. If you're being attacked it would be more effective to turn the shark over on it's stomach than to go for it's nose. How to turn a great white over onto it's stomach is left as an exercise for the reader.

Sharks are overrated. Even if a shark is determined to kill you, the chances of you actually being killed (or even severely injured) are miniscule. I think you have a few facts confused here. If a shark wants to kill you you're dead. However, in most attacks it's clear that sharks do not intend to kill you. They just tasting. If you're in salt water, you're probably swimming with some type of shark. For the most part they ignore us. Once in a great while one will decide to find out if we're worth eating. They take a nibble and mostly decide we're not worth the effort. There are examples of sharks that serially attack humans. Early in the twentieth century there were a series of anomalous attacks on the coast of New Jersey that seemed to be the work of a killer shark.

In "Tom Cruise is Totally Fucking Nuts"

It's amusing but it's also a hoax.

In "20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear War"

It appears that the bombs on the GAR-11s were pretty low yield, around a quarter kiloton. The range on the missles were short, about seven miles. I'm guessing that this meant that a pilot could launch them, turn away from the explosion, and not die instantly so in that sense I guess they weren't kamikaze weapons. The core of Mutual Assured Destruction is the threat of a suicidal attack so in that sense the nuclear buildup is a kamikaze system.

After a bit of research it appears that we did indeed build nuclear air-to-air missles. According to that article the missles were nuclear tipped because the radar guidance systems were not accurate enough to ensure a kill. I'm impressed by the incredible levels of stupidity neeeded to design and deploy such a weapon. Apparently, the air force was also bothered by the fact that the weapon couldn't be used against low-flying aircraft over friendly territory and they phased them out.

The U.S. interceptor aircraft were armed with nuclear missiles. We had nuclear aircraft-to-aircraft nuclear missles? What possible rationale is there for such a weapon?

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