VP Debate Auto-tuned

Bipartisan?  Check.

Auto-tune?  Check.

Genius?  Double check.

(via Waxy)

Links

1.  Cost To Drive - it's a broad brush but it's a pretty fair guess-timate I suppose (only includes cars from 1999 and newer).

2.  Two pieces on the so-called prosperity gospel caught my eye this week.  Did God Want You to Get That Mortgage in Time, and this piece from Peter Berger which will resonate with anyone who has spent time around the burgeoning pentecostalism of sub-Saharan Africa. 

3.  Staying in the same ball park Elizabeth Pisani comments on something we encountered in Botswana as well - navigating the tricky waters of faith healing (or simply "faith" for that matter), traditional medicines and ARV treatment for HIV.   

4.  PrintWhatYouLike.com - handy.

5.  Here's a quick vegetable stock recipe from Mark Bittman for your reference as we move whole-heartedly into soup season.

6.  Branagh to direct Thor?  I think it could work.  Thor was my favorite comic growing up (I was a mythology geek) and I've been skeptical of the forthcoming movie as even the comic had trouble walking the line between cheesy gravitas and realism, but Branagh's strong stage and Shakespeare background could pull it off.

7.  Update on the space elevator.

8.  Female birds apparently lay bright blue eggs as a signaling device, but do so at the expense of their own health:

The blue in many birds' eggs comes from the compound biliverdin, a breakdown product of the heme unit in haemoglobin, which circulates freely in the blood. But biliverdin is not just a pigment, it is also an antioxidant used by the body to prevent cellular damage.

Previous research has proven that when females lay vibrant blue eggs, their partners are more likely to stick around and help rear the young. So researchers speculated that because the blue comes from an antioxidant, it is a signal to males of the female's health status. Some scientists have argued that the female is making a dangerous trade-off, giving up resources needed to sustain her health to convince her partner that her offspring are worth looking after.

Chasing Rabbits: Bronson Pinchot

On two separate occasions today Perfect Strangers came up and it made me curious what Bronson Pinchot had been up to, from Wikipedia:

In December 2002, Pinchot became a Freemason.

Since approximately 1999, Pinchot has spent a great deal of time in the town of Harford, Pennsylvania restoring the circa 1839 mansion of former Pennsylvania Senator Edward Jones.  He has since purchased a number of properties in the small, rural town of 1,300 in an effort to return the town to its 1800s appearance. He purchased the town store and demolished it. He paid the volunteer fire company to move outside of town. He is currently in the process of suing the town's historical society for the rights to a small triangular island, one of the last pieces of the town center he does not yet own

Here's a strangely surreal article from a local paper on Pinchot's vision for the town.

Sometimes Good Enough . . .

is in fact good enough.  

I'm not watching the VP debate, again, its the ancillary that interests me when it comes to politics.  And so far Intrade thinks Palin is getting the job done as the odds for her to be withdrawn have dropped almost 2 points since the debate began and almost 3 on the day:

Update:  One last glance at Intrade before turning in and Palin is down another point or two. Looks like she's done well enough to stop the Eagleton talk, good for her, but there doesn't appear to be any movement either way on the big board.

Quote of the Day

Tyler Cowen discussing the fate of the dollar:

The negative scenario for the dollar is where the Chinese economy collapses, not where the Chinese become too afraid to buy dollar-denominated assets.

Bush, Bernanke, Paulson -- we call them leaders. The Chinese think of them as the customer service department. I suspect the Chinese get straighter answers from them than we ever do.

Sheeran Letterman Video

Here's the video of WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran on Letterman last night for those who missed it.