Lorem Ipsum

I could post about what's up with me, but nothing of particular interest going on. I mean, I could tell you about the nosebleed I had the other day, or about the annoying termite people, but wouldn't you rather have some political items, in honor of tonight's Presidential debates? I thought so.

• A discussion in Derek's journal led to some pointers to various sites showing the likely breakdown of electoral-college votes in the US:
  • The most comprehensive survey/summary seems to be Unfutz (I think Vardibidian pointed me to that a while ago), which lists current projections from about 50 different electoral-college tracking sites.
  • A nifty electoral college graph shows how the numbers have changed over the past few months. (There's a similar graph at Unfutz, but this one includes indications of when various newsworthy events took place.)
  • The BBC provides a US elections map with info by state.
• The New Yorker's "Shouts & Murmurs" section features a brief humor piece titled "Rules of Engagement," by Christopher Buckley, giving purported rules for tonight's debate. My favorite bit: "Candidates shall address each other in terms of mutual respect ('Mr. President,' 'Senator,' etc.). Use of endearing modifiers ('my distinguished opponent,' 'the honorable gentleman,' 'Pookie,' 'Diddums,' etc.) is permitted." (Thanks, Will!)
• Scalia may have strict views on the Constitution, but apparently his personal views on sex are a little less traditional, according to a Harvard Crimson article: "I even take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged." (Thanks, Will!)
• Some discussion of the candidates' sports-fan qualifications from Slate.