What’s left of the old Aquarena Springs amusement park/resort will be demolished, and the park will finally be returned to something that will closer resemble its natural state.
Early Voting
This was the scene yesterday during early voting at my polling place. The entire line was at least twice this long, and according to the officials it has stayed that way since early voting started.
Our Rooms and Our Politics
Researchers think that the condition of our offices and bedrooms says a lot about our political philosophies. Their findings show that people with messy rooms tend to lean left, and conservatives are often neat freaks.
According to a controversial new study, set to be published in The Journal of Political Psychology, the bedrooms and offices of liberals, who are generally thought of as open, tend to be colorful and awash in books about travel, ethnicity, feminism and music, along with music CDs covering folk, classic and modern rock, as well as art supplies, movie tickets and travel memorabilia.
Conservatives, on the other hand, tend to surround themselves with calendars, postage stamps, laundry baskets, irons and sewing materials in their personal spaces, according to the study. Their bedrooms and offices are well-lighted and decorated with sports paraphernalia and flags—especially American ones.
Annie Leibovitz Lavazza Calendar
I’m more of an illy guy, but Lavazza commissioned Annie Leibovitz to shoot a really cool Rome-themed calendar.
New York Cheat Sheets
The Internet Makes Us Smarter
Time spent on the Internet has been shown to increase brain activity in middle aged and older Americans who had previous web surfing experience.
“Our most striking finding was that Internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading, but only in those people with prior Internet experience,”
Classical Music as Punishment
As punishment for violating the city’s noise ordinance by playing loud rap music in his car, an Urbana man was sentenced to listen to 20 hours of symphonic music or pay a $130 fine. The symphonic selections included Beethoven, Chopin, Bach, DeBussy and other composers. He lasted 15 minutes and chose to instead pay the fine. I think I would have sentenced him to listen to an entire atonal opera. 
Richard Serra
“I don’t give a shit but I care quite a lot.” –Richard Serra
Wikipedia Chooses Ubuntu
Wikipedia has chosen Ubuntu to power its 400 servers that run the website. From Computerworld:
Wikimedia’s switch from Red Hat to Ubuntu is also likely a result of Ubuntu’s making the enterprise server and consumer desktop versions of its operating systems available for free to all users, with no lightening of the systems for nonpaying customers.
Slacker on Hulu
Slacker is on Hulu. To know this film, is to know Brian Griffin. 
Georges Boulanger
I was familiar with Georges Boulanger as the composer of several interesting pieces performed by some of my favorite fiddlers, ie. Roby Lakatos and Abram Shtern. But I was unaware that Boulanger was an accomplished violinist himself, who studied with renowned pedagogue Leopold Auer. I have gathered several examples of Boulanger’s playing below, which I hope fellow violinophiles will enjoy.
Linux turns 17
Happy Birthday, Linux. The OS I’m proud to call $HOME is 17 years old. 
Flickr Explore Panda
I’m not sure of the story behind the Explore Panda, but I think it must have been inspired by this drawing.
Another Way to Die
New video for the theme of the upcoming Bond film Quantum of Solace. “Another Way to Die” performed by Alicia Keys and Jack White.