While most Americans will flock to the polls Tuesday to cast their vote for the next U.S. president, two U.S. citizens will beam their ballots down from the International Space Station as they fly 220 miles (354 km) above Earth.
Like all U.S. spaceflyers since 1997, NASA astronauts Michael Fincke and Gregory Chamitoff can vote in their local and national elections thanks to a handy Texas state law that ensures their ballots can be counted, even from space.
“So I’m going to exercise my privilege as a citizen and actually vote from space on Election Day,” Fincke, the space station’s Expedition 18 commander, told SPACE.com before he left Earth. “I think the candidates this year are exciting in and of themselves. But hopefully we get people to realize what a privilege it is, and they exercise and get a chance to vote.”
Only four Americans in NASA’s 50-year history have voted from space, largely because the Texas law allowing was passed just 11 years ago, said Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters, a spokesperson with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. And just one of those four, now-retired spaceflyer Leroy Chiao, voted during a presidential election in 2004 while commanding the space station’s Expedition 10 crew.
How does it work?
The process of voting from space actually begins on the ground. According to the 1997 bill, astronauts in space can cast an absentee ballot from their spacecraft with the help of the County Clerk of Harris and Brazoria counties, which contain Houston and its surrounding area.
The County Clerk’s office prepares a secure electronic ballot that is then relayed to the International Space Station via NASA’s Mission Control room at the Johnson Space Center. Meanwhile, the Clerk’s Office sends a separate e-mail to the astronaut with login information to access the ballot and vote.
“So there’s this plan in place and I’ll have an electronic ballot and be able to vote from up here,” Chamitoff told SPACE.com from the space station recently.
The completed ballot is then beamed back to Mission Control and sent back to the County Clerk’s office to be tallied.
When the Redskins win their last home game prior to election day, the party that won the popular vote in the previous presidential election wins the race to the White House. When the ‘Skins lose the last home game before the election, the party that lost the popular vote in the most recent presidential election turns out the winner.
That means a Redskins win would favor McCain, while a Steelers victory would presage an Obama victory. The Redskins Rule deals with the popular vote, so let us know if you’ve got a sports-related barometer for the electoral college.
Oh, but there’s another silly rule that invovles the Bengals . . .
STATS LLC points out that in nine of the past 10 elections, the Bengals have tied their fate to the Democratic candidate. Since 1968, if Cincinnati won its last contest prior to Election Day, the Democratic contender for the White House also won. If Cincinnati lost its last game before Election Day, the Democrat also lost.
The lone exception came in 1988 when the Bengals defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers on November 6, yet two days later, Michael Dukakis lost the election to George H.W. Bush.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A local man finds what looks like mouse in his hotdog bun, but the company that made the bread has another explanation.
Arnold’s Bread claims it is dough or “pan accumulation.”
But North Carolina’s Department of Agriculture has launched an investigation and asked Florida to inspect the factory where the buns were baked.
“Everyone thinks this is a mouse except you.†That’s what Bruce Van Dyne told the Arnold’s Master Baker who inspected the hotdog buns he believes have a mouse baked into the side of them.
The article goes on, but here’s an update on it:
Arnold Bakers released the following statement after a local man claims he found a mouse in his hotdog bun:
Arnold Bakers is committed to providing high quality fresh rolls to consumers. We sincerely apologize to the consumer in Charlotte, North Carolina who received rolls containing excess dough. We regret the resulting  concern stemming from this instance of pan accumulation, a deposit of hardened dough, on a hot dog roll.
Arnold acted immediately to identify the substance in question through an independent outside laboratory.  Physical and microbiological examination of the product by the independent laboratory today confirmed that the substance is hardened dough. Arnold wants to reassure the public of our continued commitment to high quality manufacturing standards.
And the creativity of this commericals makes me even appreciate it more, with the best part being Steven Hawking singing along. Oddley enough, I spent a good 20 minutes on his webpage the other day.
They’re the bane of city drivers everywhere: those traffic lights that invariably turn to red just as you approach, making even the shortest journey a stop-start affair.
But now a German car-maker has come to the rescue – with a device that ensures you can always arrive at a light when it is green.
The in-car gadget tells drivers how fast to go in order to sail through a junction by ‘speaking’ to special transmitters fitted inside a traffic signal that can be up to 300 yards away.
It arrives at the calculation after plotting the car’s position and approach route, then displays the optimum speed on a screen.
Audi, which has developed the device called Travolution, claims extensive trials have been so successful that in one phase of testing, cars nearly always hit a light on green.
The World’s Smallest Postal Service is a teeny tiny letter transcription service. It sets up shop in cafes and stores, and is now available online. Here’s how it works: You write a letter (up to 6 sentences – see below) and I rewrite it onto tiny stationary (1 x 1.5 inches) with my microscopic ink pen. It then goes into a tiny envelope which gets addressed, stamped, and sealed with a tiny wax seal with your initial on it. The letter then goes into a see-through folded coin case and is packaged up with a magnifying glass in a larger glassine envelope, finished off with a large “World’s Smallest Letter” wax seal. I can send your letter directly to a recipient of your choice, or to you if you would like to distribute it yourself.
*NEW* World’s Smallest Birthday Cards, Winter Holiday Cards, Valentines, and cards from the Tooth Fairy!
MeetInBetween.us is the solution we’ve all been waiting for! Use it to plan anything with people who don’t live near each other. Get started by entering addresses on the home page and then find a place to meet! From lunch with a friend to a scattered group of people, MeetInBetween.us will keep you from driving all the way out there!
If you think I posted about this website before, you would be wrong, but close. I made a post about a similar website called a.placebetween.us last year. But between the two, I think I like this new find better.
From the flap over Rev. Jeremiah Wright–Barack Obama’s longtime minister–to the video of Sarah Palin’s appearance with an African pastor who was praying to protect her from witchcraft, the candidates’ beliefs and faith practices have played a major role in the 2008 presidential race. But there’s a lot of bad information–and some false rumors–out there. How much do you really know about the faith of the candidates? Take our quiz and find out.
A photograph of your apartment key is enough to enable someone to unlock your door, thanks to a new technology developed by computer scientists at UC San Diego.
Led by computer science professor Stefan Savage, a group of students devised a way for a computer program to create a duplicate of a key by simply analyzing a photograph of it. Each bump and valley on a key represents a numeric code, which completely describes how to open any lock, according to UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering publication.
The team demonstrated the software at ACM’s Conference on Communications and Computer Security 2008, where students showed off the technique up close and from afar. They took close-up shots of keys with a cell phone camera. Then, using a 5-inch telephoto lens, they stood on top of a building and took photos of keys sitting on a table 200 feet away. In both examples, they were able to capture sufficient data to create duplicate keys.
As neat as the technique sounds, the computer scientists are aware it will instill fear in those who have posted photos of their keys on public photo sites such as Flickr. However, Savage says for quite some time, some expert locksmiths have been able to copy keys by hand from looking at high-resolution photos. The computer scientists’ project would simply enable anybody with the software to do the same.
To address the concern, some companies are developing keys that contain computer chips, so they’d need to both physically fit the lock and send the proper code to open it.
Moving the time change back a week or whatover it was throws me off. I’m not use to waiting so long to hand out candy. I also think parents were a bit confused as to when to let their kiddos start going out since dusk occurs later than usual.
There was a man in my neighborhood that always gave out dimes for Halloween. That memory came up as I found out the kids in Sacramento used sidewalk chalk to put a Candy Code outside of houses. Link
There’s a man a work that wears a turban everyday. I saw him wear it on Halloween, but I wonder how many visitors thought it was a costume.
A lady refused to give candy to the children of Obama supporters. Link
The BBC interviews a Redneck that supports Obama. Link
The end times must be near, North Texas had several earthquakes over the weekend and Texas Tech is the highest ranked football team in the Big 12. The next thing you’ll know the U.S. will have a Black president.
I thought Sarah Palin has lost some weight, the rumor is that she’s done this by a shake made by former NFL bad boy Bill Romanowski. Link
Here’s an interesting chart comparing the actual vote to polling trends from 2000, 2004, and 2008. The line in the middle represents the actual vote, the other lines were polling numbers.
McCain was just fantastic on SNL.
I’ve never seen SNL end so early, the credits at the end just seemed to roll forever.
This is pretty cool, you can just keep on zooming in on Yosemite Glacier Point. Link
I think I just saw the guy that played Ed on Northern Exposure in a Sierra Mist commercial.
I never really watched the show when it was on, but became infatuated with it when it was on syndication.
I don’t think I have ever watched a Texas Tech game until this weekend, and it occurred to me that their fight song was the exact same one my high school used.  Our school song or alma mata sounded just like Oh Christmas Tree.
I’ve said it all year long, I didn’t think Texas was the number one team in the country.
There’s one thing I would like to change about ABC’s college football coverage. They should always display the down and yards to go. It disappears right after the play, and it’s right after the play that I always want to know at least the down.
As much as I can’t stand Texas Tech, I have to admit I’m happy for that community that is stuck in the middle of nowhere. WifeGeeding was talking to her best friend who is a middle school teacher in Lubbock and she said instead of having a bell for dismissal, the Texas Tech fight song was played. Add that along with College Game Day making an appearance for the first time ever to that campus you can’t help but feel good for the folks in that community. Not to mention, it was their 500th win in football and their first ever win against a number one ranked team.
However, with the loss I didn’t think the sun would come up the next morning. Turns out it was just the time change.
I pulled the trigger on some gas logs over the weekend, but I had a little trouble with installation. I get a bit worried working with gas as I had an uncle die in a gas explosion. Luckily I used the power of The Google and found a nice instructional video.
I think I like ABC News political analysis the best.
The Boston Globe provides instructions on how to nap. Link
I think Chris Berman has lost weight.
That was one painful Cowboy game to watch.
The Simpsons Halloween Special was so-so. I think this was the first time the aliens didn’t have a speaking part.
I hear 30 Rock is trying to get the cast of Night Court to make an appearance. That should be pretty cool. I wonder what Bull looks like nowadays. Edit: I checked out the 30 Rock link on IMDB and found the cast listing for the Night Court reunion on the show. Looks like it’s only Harry Anderson, Markie Post, and Charles Robinson (Mack). I think every guy has a soft spot for Markie Post.
I got this cool little email from one of my most loyal readers. I never wanted to be a Starbucks manager so much in my life:
Thought you would find this interesting. This week I traveled with 10,000 other management of Starbucks to New Orleans where we held our leadership conference for the first time in 4 years. We had 10,000 people in shifts for four days helping rebuild the city as we were in and out of leadership training. Very cool!The highlight was on Thursday when Howard Shultz, CEO of Starbucks, announced that our company will join product Red this holiday to help fight AIDS in Africa. And wouldn’t you know it, Bono jumps out on stage! It was AWESOME!! My whole team of managers and I were no more than 5 feet from the stage and got to see him up close and personal.
He had a great message and I am excited to work for a company that is working with him on this project. Here is a site with some news about the event.
