Yesterday, I wrote about an absolute must-read book: The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
It has been shown in an extensive world-wide study that a simple checklist used in surgery cuts infection rates, cuts death rates, and saves costs. It does all of these by substantial margins, everywhere they’ve been implemented. But [...]

President Barack Obama’s multi-ethnic background and refusal to get tied down to stereotypes has made him a cultural Rorschach test.
The definitive proof? This song: There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama

(Lyrics here) And a better video can be seen if you click on this link. The band disabled embedding videos…

It was clear to me quite early on Election Night that Nate Silver’s reputation was well-deserved, and Barack Obama was going to be the next President of the United States. As blue states were called quickly for Obama and it took quite some time to call red states for McCain, the result was even [...]

These are the things that are making me happy today:

Top Gear! – Top Gear is back on television! One of the best shows on TV anywhere, it started its new season last night. Really funny, and just lots of fun to watch.
This also allows me to bring up a HUGE pet peeve of [...]

The election is next week, and it’s clear from my previous posts that I’m an Obama supporter, and have been since he announced his candidacy in January 2007. (I’ve gotten a very good return on my investment in him at Betfair!)
For people that are interested in Obama, his grassroots/volunteer movement, or politics in general, [...]

So there are a few things I’ve been meaning to post for a while, but haven’t gotten around to. I’m going to un-clog my mind and post a round-up of stuff here.

Stephen Hawking will be retiring from the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Apparently it’s traditional for the person [...]

I personally don’t believe a recent news story has received nearly enough attention: on Saturday, 27 September 2008 a Chinese astronaut made a successful spacewalk from a Chinese craft.
HOLY ****!
Why do I say this?
In less than two years the Space Shuttles are scheduled to be retired, leaving the United States without the capability to get [...]

So the countdown to our departure to Beijing is getting very short. Tomorrow we do the online checking and pray for decent seats, and finish the day by packing. (I’ve made our list, but haven’t packed a thing yet.) That should be straightforward, though. It’s damn hot, and we aren’t doing [...]