Dan Lipka Web Log

As an avid reader of this blog, you are well aware of the close Senate race in Minnesota. 2,500,000 people voted and as they tally the ballots it looks to be within 100 votes. State judges have already verified all of the regular votes and are now going through the "questionable" ballots. These are ones where the voter did not clearly and correctly indicate their preference. Luckily (and very fairly) the judges and the law, can say a vote counts if the "intent" was clear. In an amazing quirk of transparency, you can actually view all of the questionable ballots online (you can even click on them to see the exact reason why they are in question). This is wonderful and I wonder what would happen if it came down to one vote and one ballot which was in question. What if that was your ballot and you just slipped while writing and didn't make a clear mark. What if you knew that was your ballot, would they let you state your intent? It would only work if someh

This mostly a re-post of something I wrote two years ago, but I think about is this time of year... Why is December 31 the end of the “year”? Well, first what is a year; on earth it is the time is takes to complete one full orbit around the sun, more specifically 365 Days, 5 Hours, 48 Minutes, 46 Seconds. In order to keep track of how many times we go around the sun, it is convenient to keep track of each orbit by designating one day as the officially beginning and end of the year. But why December 31st, that date has n o astrological significance at all (it does have cultural significance ; some say it celebrates Jesus’ briss, actually many European countries used to start their new year on Christmas, while others start their new year on Easter). And Christmas was most likely modified to fall near the winter solstice (also known as Yule; it celebration the shortest day of the year ). But we most recognize that the solstice (and all seasons for that matter) has nothing to do with th

Whether it is throwing money away or not, I don’t understand how Congress is not authorizing cash or loans for GM, Ford, and Chrysler. From a political point of view, I see it as a no-lose situation. If the car companies recover then they are heroes and if they don’t recover nobody will remember the money and they can always blame the car companies for being inefficient. As for President Bush, this is a last chance to have something positive on his resume. If he authorizes a bailout and the companies recover, then he can always say that he single-handily saved the US auto industry (which might actual be true). And if he authorizes the money and it ends up just be wasted than he would still be the second worst President ever. Imagine adding the destruction of the US auto industry to his record of having the largest attack on US soil under his watch, not catching those behind the attach, destroying our international credibility, royally screwing up a war (after lying about

If I was to rank the technological advancements that have made my life easier, number 1 on the list might be DVR. There have been many things that have added to my efficiency, effectiveness, or enjoyment, but nothing has made my life easier. DVR (or Tivo) actually seems to give me more hours in the day. For example, I was watching the Giants game yesterday and I paused the game in the first quarter, than did 20 minutes of housework, went back to the TV and put the game back on. After skipping the commercials for a bit, I was back to live TV. I gained 20 of time that I would never have had. For every hour of TV I watch on DVR, I gain 15-20 of free time. I gain even more time if it is a sporting event (it saves the most time for baseball, which more than half ½ of the game is commercials or waiting for the next pitch. Sure I might miss some commentary, but that is only a minor loss. And eventually, advertisers will start replacing commercials with product placements, but I don’t

The Senate race in Minnesota has still not been decided. There were millions of votes casts and it is coming down to a few hundred. Reports are coming from all over that ballots have been lost, destroyed, miscounted, or are invalid. Some people wrote notes on the ballot making them invalid according to state statutes. There is a law on the books that says if the overall vote is a tie than they actually flip a coin. Imagine, the representation of millions of people would rest on a random heads or tails. I think this would be the perfect time to have a re-vote. New people could register and everyone votes again. It’s called democracy and if people really believed their vote counted than they might actually get out to the polls. We are spending hundreds of billions to bail out the banks, but we can't find a few million to restore a basic democratic principal. I say, let them vote! Again! Although this is a big deal, it would be a huge national story if a Democratic victory in Minne

Molly and I went to Costco the other day to get some basic supplies. Lindy has a Costco membership, but had taken the card with her to work. She thought that if I went to the customer service, they would give me something so I can shop, but alas, that was not the case. I was denied the ability to spend my money because I was not the actual member. Why is this? Why are these bulk warehouse stores the only ones to have memberships? Isn’t there a market for bulk items by themselves? If Costco charges 2% more, they would still have great prices for people willing to purchase bulk items. Wouldn’t that 2% cover everyone’s membership and just imagine how many more people would shop there. Walmart has proven that if you have enough customers you will make a huge overall profit, even if you are only making a tiny profit on each item. Furthermore, Costco doesn’t have a trial or test membership. Why not offer people a test drive and then they can see the benefits for themselves. If Li

Barack Obama says he wants to change the politics of this country, but now I hear that he is going to nominate Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. I am not a Hillary Clinton supporter for many reasons, but most importantly I just don’t like the idea of family legacies in government. Although I believe Hillary is a good Senator and a very competent person, she represents the political ideology of the Bill Clinton Administration. There is nothing wrong with this and I believe Bill Clinton was an excellent President and his ideas were progressive, although still within the tight framework of the currently political structure. Bill Clinton did not bring significant positive change to the system, his impact was felt in particularly program areas. How can Barack Obama make fundamental change if he is represented by the more much conservative (conservative within the progressive genre) Hillary Clinton all around the world. Furthermore, the Clintons presence will detract fro

Nooooooooooooo! They are remaking Berry Gordy's the Last Dragon. The greatest action, adventure, love, kung-fu, coming of age, drama of the last 100 years. This movie is perfect in every way. Re-releasing the original is a great idea; expose a new generation to the awesome power of The Last Dragon. Samuel L. Jackson will be playing Sho'nuff, and although he is a huge Hollywood action star, you just can't replace the original. How can we stop this? Did they wait until Julius Carry III passed away before the starting production because they knew that he would never allow this to happen. How can we stop this? I call upon Taimak, Vanity, and all those from the real Last Dragon to join me in a crusade to stop this travesty. Together we will get to the final level, we will find the secrets to the golden glow, and our minds, body and souls shall become one. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081030/film_nm/us_jackson

Big numbers are hard for people to process. 700 billion can start to sound like 300 billion, or 900 million for that matter. It becomes like sand grains or moon strands, magically big, past the point of counting; an amount you sit with a nephew and contemplate in wonder. - It is one third of the total amount of money received by the federal government in 2007, including social security, income tax, corporate tax, and all other receipts. - It is nine times the amount spent on education in 2007. - It is 35 times the amount spent on all foreign aid in most years. - It is $140 billion more than has been spent on the Iraq war since the invasion. - It is $120 billion more than that spent on social security benefits. - It is 7,000 times bigger than the Sierra club’s yearly budget. - Its over twice the amount of all money given to all charitable organizations in the United States in any given year. - It is more than $100 for eve

The Jets are an amazing 7-3 and in first place in the AFC east. Over the past six years, the Jets have had a winning season (and made the playoffs) every other year. On some basic level this makes sense. All NFL teams have a salary cap and thus the talent level is pretty consistent. If a team has a good season, the following year their schedule with be tougher, likewise if they are horrible, they will play other bad teams the next season. So is it fair to say the Jets are just good against poor teams? Yes, but who cares. The Jets invested heavily in winning this year, signing a series of veteran stars, of which almost all of them have worked out. Farve, although past his prime, is still a significant upgrade over Pennington. Fanica and Woody, also over the hill, are still a huge upgrades and has steadied the offensive line. Calvin Pace has been excellent and Kris Jenkins is a dominant force on defense, actually helping to stop the run for the first time in my lifetime. 1st r

The ques tion for President Obama becomes, “is change possible?”. Sure he can modify the tax rate, but is he going to raise taxes enough to make them compare at least equally with other countries (as a percent of our GDP, the US taxes a tremendously small amount compared to almost every other first world country). Maybe than we could make health care, college, and employment training free for everyone. The US spends 50% of its discretionary money on the military, but only 6% on Health and Human Services, 5% on Education, 2% on the Department of Energy, 2% on the Department of Justice, and 1% on the EPA. We spend 10 times as much on the military (not even including the wars) than on education. We spend 10X more money on the military than China does. Is that going to change? Are we going to mandate environmental changes now? Can these types of changes ever be implemented, even with a democratic majority in both houses of Congress. We know Obama says he wants change, but is it even possib

In early December of last year I officially endorsed Barack Obama. I don't want to take full credit (perhaps just 95%) for the fact that at that exact moment his campaign turned around and he started his earnest pursuit of the Presidency. For various reasons, my blog was shut down until this time (was it because I was secretly running Obama's campaign, or was I negotiating Brett Favre's path to Jets, or perhaps I was just job hunting.) Anyway, election night is upon us. Go Vote. I am driving all the back to Connecticut to vote (see upcoming posts for why I am no longer living in the Nutmeg State . Although it is a little late in the day, please comment with your predictions as to the final outcome. The person who is closest will win amazing prizes. My final tally: Obama - 330, McCain - 208. (fyi, when I restarted the blog, there were errors with my template and I had to change it now the fonts are all messed up, I will change this soon. Thanks.)