Opinion: Restoring path of true democracy - Eric Schneiderman - POLITICO.com

Opinion: Restoring path of true democracy - Eric Schneiderman - POLITICO.com

Viral Spiral 2012 | FactCheck.org

FactCheck.org gives the lowdown on the most common viral e-mails of 2012:

"...despite all good common sense, people do pass along these malicious attempts to deceive, often in the same amount of time it would take to check their tenuous hold on veracity. Our readers — some clearly trying to beat back the onslaught from friends — constantly ask us to put these viral claims to the truth test. In 2012, we found that:

- Dueling graphics on the debt both overstated and understated President Obama’s contribution to the debt.
- No, Obama didn’t give Alaskan islands to Russia, and his early records weren’t “sealed.”
- Over-the-top “death panel” claims about the Affordable Care Act included purely invented stories about elderly Americans being denied dialysis or brain surgery.
- Vote-rigging conspiracies claimed that Tagg Romney owned voting machines in Ohio (he doesn’t) and that uncounted military ballots swung the election for Obama (from a “faux news” site).
- In the tin-foil-hat category, one conspiracy said Obama was creating martial law and a “standing army of government youth.” The adult-aged FEMA Corps members help with natural disasters and can’t carry weapons.
- General Motors is still firmly based in the U.S., despite claims that it’s becoming “China Motors.”
- Old-but-still-kicking emails percolated, claiming that Medicare premiums were about to skyrocket, everyone’s home sales would be taxed, and the Obama administration wanted to ban weapons among U.S. citizens — none of which is true."

Does anyone remember the Star Wars spoof short film "Hardware Wars"?

I remember watching this short film on HBO when I was eight years old and hadn't seen it since until now.

Why they want to go over the cliff | POLITICO

This is an interesting explanation for why no one in Washington seems too concerned about going over the fiscal cliff:

"It’s a Nash equilibrium. John Nash, subject of “A Beautiful Mind,” the Oscar-winning film that revolved around game theory, explained how players act in a multiplayer game. Put simply, if each player understands his adversaries’ strategies, no one will alter their own course. Right now, Obama, Boehner and Reid are locked in on a course for the cliff, and there’s no obvious solution that would make any of them switch directions."

Christmas Hoedown from "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"

If you remember the old TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", one of their most popular games was called hoedown. One of my favorite hoedowns of all time has to be the Christmas hoedown from a 1999 episode. As a non-Christian growing up in the USA, I think I can totally relate to Drew Carey's lines here. Also, after all these years, I finally learned what Ryan Stiles says in his lines.

Merry Christmas!!! ENJOY!

iMentor Volunteers Mentor the Next Generation of Software Engineers at the Academy for Software Engineering | iMentor

A great blog post about an awesome new public high school in New York City and a fantastic mentoring program working with that school. (Full disclosure: I am one of the iMentor mentors assigned to this school.)

CNN/ORC Poll: Republicans too extreme | POLITICO

Not a very surprising result from the recent CNN/ORC poll:

"Fifty-three percent of Americans said the GOP is too extreme, according to a CNN/ORC poll. That’s up 17 percentage points from two years ago, when Republicans were coming off a midterm walloping where they took control of the House. A matching 53 percent said Republicans should compromise more. However, Americans don’t want the GOP to lose control of the lower chamber, according to the poll."