Month: November 2012

If you don’t get the joke, you probably haven’t seen The Room. You don’t have to watch the whole movie; you’re probably better off just watching the Nostalgia Critic’s review…

…or Obscurus Lupa’s review:

I had some meetings downtown today, and snapped these pictures in the early afternoon while walking up University Avenue from Wellington Street. It was a crisp, bright afternoon, and the glass buildings lining downtown’s widest north/south street were looking particularly snappy:

Walking south on Yonge Street just north of Dundas earlier today, I had to take a quick peek at what must be Comic Book Guy heaven: Silver Snail’s new location, atop the brand new branch of Five Guys. I will have to drop by one Saturday for treats from both places, perhaps with Darth Gorber or the nephews.

My friend Jason Gorber pointed me to this interview from CBC Radio’s The Current’s November 1st broadcast, in which he joined in as a guest panelist to weigh in on Disney’s taking over the Star Wars franchise. “Darth Gorber”, as I like to call him, is a Star Wars fan of the highest order, with a house full of Star Wars memorabilia, a regular attendance record at events such as Celebration and and a lovely girlfriend with the patience of a saint. As a friend and as someone who contributes a lot to the discussion, I thought it worthwhile to share the broadcast with you:

Alas; CBC’s player is flash-based, so you’re not going to be able to listen to it on mobile and other non-Flash-enabled devices.

It appears that there are at least two Facebook-themed restaurants called “Facefood”. Someone I know joked that those restaurants will have to redo their signs every six months; my joke is that your waiter will keep telling you what all the other tables are having. What’s your joke? Post it in the comments.

In today’s mailing from someecards, I got pointed to HappyPlace.com’s table showing the US’ ten best- and worst-educated states and how they voted, and surprise, surpise: there’s a pattern!

Table from HappyPlace.com, using data from FoxBusiness.com. Ouch. Click to see the source.

The table takes its data from, of all places, an October 15th, 2012 Fox Business article which in turn got its information from an October 15th, 2012 article in 24/7 Wall Street, which in turn got its information from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The votes went unanimously to Obama among the best-educated states and nearly unanimously to Romney in the worst-educated ones. (Nevada is the standout, but hey, they make a living playing the odds, which as Nate Silver showed, were in Obama’s favour.)

The data in the 24/7 Wall Street article doesn’t just list the percentage of the population with bachelor’s degrees or higher in the 10 best- and worst-educated states, it also has their median household income and the percentage of the population that lives below the poverty level. I took that data, put it in a table, and colour-coded it with the way each state voted in the recent election, and here it is:

Once again, the pattern shows itself. You may want to keep this data handy the next time someone tries to sell you the malarkey that people who vote Democratic are low-achievers who just want handouts. The numbers show that they’re more likely to have gone to university, do better financially and less likely to be below the poverty line; it’s the opposite of the “window-licking layabout” stereotype of the Democratic voter that the Republicans tried to propagate.

The pattern applies to regions smaller than states as well. Take Florida (please): this electoral map, courtesy of Unsettled Christianity, shows how various regions voted and where the state’s universities are. Note that the areas that voted blue were also those with the universities:

Table from Unsettled Christianity. Click to see the source.

So it turns out that in this one case, Karl Rove was right:

Our education plan allows us to make further gains in the suburbs. It will also allow us to make gains with Hispanics and African-Americans. As people do better, they start voting like Republicans — unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing.

– Karl Rove in The Daily Texan, March 19, 2001

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— In Flanders Fields, written by Lt. Col. John McCrae