Weekly Notes: January 17, 2008

Notes are a day early, since I hope to have a game review for you tomorrow.

• Melissa and I finished The Bourne Ultimatum on Tuesday night, and I was left with just one question: Can I think of another trilogy of action movies more (collectively) satisfying than the Bourne trilogy? I couldn’t.
• Ars Technica has a nice analysis of the purported election fraud in the New Hampshire primary, with one great note that serves as a critique of some statistical analysts in general:
  • “Lesson 1: The Internet is full of people who have four things that make them dangerous, both to would-be election fraudsters and (paradoxically) to the larger cause of election integrity: computers, intermediate math skills, a mix of patriotic and entrepreneurial zeal, and the ability to publish in the blink of an eye. When you add a stream of evolving vote tallies to this mix and shake vigorously, the resulting concoction will produce lots and lots of foam. (Some of that foam may look just like the Virgin Mary for a bit, so you can get on the evening news with it if you’re quick enough. But I’m getting ahead of myself.)”
• There’s something about American Idol that I find oddly compelling, despite some of the show’s incredibly annoying aspects (over-the-top product placement, staged tense moments, theme weeks). One of its draws, for me, is seeing regular people succeed when they would never have gotten the chance before. Having said that, I’m not sure where I stand on the recent controversy over the influx of “established” musicians on this show.  They may still meet the show’s requirements not to have ties with a record label or manager, but it seems to violate the spirit of the competition.  Maybe I should just stop watching…after all, there’s plenty of basketball to watch this time of year.
• Speaking of basketball: UTC plays Appy State tonight in an effort to remain undefeated in the SoCon.  The standings probably don’t matter, since it’s almost certainly a one-bid league, and everyone makes the championship tournament, but it would be nice not to be on Davidson’s side of the bracket.
• Harding and Delta State go at it tonight in the thriving metropolis of Cleveland, Mississippi.  I’m working round-the-clock on stats so you’ll have something interesting on the site other than posts like this.  And by “round-the-clock,” I mean “whenever I’m not working, sleeping, eating, or playing Xbox.”

Hope that’s okay.