Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Iran Election: Number of Votes Exceed Number of Eligible Voters

I think the first sentence tells the story.

CAIRO — Iran’s most powerful oversight council announced on Monday that the number of votes recorded in 50 cities exceeded the number of eligible voters there by three million, further tarnishing a presidential election that has set off the most sustained challenge to Iran’s leadership in 30 years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/world/middleeast/23iran.html?_r=1&hp

Saturday, June 6, 2009

The Big Bang Theory on CBS

I don't watch much television, so I hadn't heard of this show before. I saw a few clips on Hulu and decided to get the first season from Netflix.

This show is wonderful. I never imaged that a show that make jokes about string theory or Schrödinger's cat would survive on network television and actually get renewed, twice! The only explanation I can come up with is that a critical part of their demographic is people who can hack the Nielsen computers.

The best part of the show is Jim Parsons who plays the socially dysfunctional string theorist, Sheldon. When I say socially dysfunctional, I mean the part of his brain that is supposed to process social cues from other people is totally nonfunctional. It gives him a sort of man from Mars viewpoint that drives much of the humor. I can totally relate to Sheldon, since I have tendencies in that direction myself, but that isn't that unusual in software development. I remember one team I was on where the company psychologist said our team meetings reminded him of a grade school at recess.

Go check out some clips here:

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/big_bang_theory/video/?category=editorial

I'd suggest trying "
Sheldon's Friendship Flowchart":
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/big_bang_theory/video/video.php?cid=501654023&pid=E0ISWS45wZsPt28foZ3xxVxQW0dXAUWu&play=true&cc=2

"Also Just a little String theory doodling."
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/big_bang_theory/video/video.php?cid=501654023&pid=Aly48-iIAr9AUz5YmdNXfObRBFuAkwtR&play=true&cc=2