Jar of Wonder

I certainly was a bit suspicious of this trend. It will be interesting to watch if gas prices bubble back up to normal soon. Original article on Salon (for those of you who want to stare at ads before reading two paragraphs) original artcle from CNN.

If you were a little suspicious of the way in which gasoline prices just happened to dive just before this month’s midterm elections, this bit of news won’t exactly put your mind at ease: After dropping 84 cents between Aug. 11 and Nov. 3, gas prices are up five cents in the first Lundberg Survey released after the Nov. 7 election.

Trilby Lundberg tells CNN that the reversal in the 12-week pre-election slide shows that the market has “soaked up” a “mini-glut” of crude oil from August, causing a “normalization” of supply and demand.

–AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl
–AZ-01: Rick Renzi
–AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth
–CA-04: John Doolittle
–CA-11: Richard Pombo
–CA-50: Brian Bilbray
–CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave
–CO-05: Doug Lamborn
–CO-07: Rick O’Donnell
–CT-04: Christopher Shays
–FL-13: Vernon Buchanan
–FL-16: Joe Negron
–FL-22: Clay Shaw
–ID-01: Bill Sali
–IL-06: Peter Roskam
–IL-10: Mark Kirk
–IL-14: Dennis Hastert
–IN-02: Chris Chocola
–IN-08: John Hostettler
–IA-01: Mike Whalen
–KS-02: Jim Ryun
–KY-03: Anne Northup
–KY-04: Geoff Davis
–MD-Sen: Michael Steele
–MN-01: Gil Gutknecht
–MN-06: Michele Bachmann
–MO-Sen: Jim Talent
–MT-Sen: Conrad Burns
–NV-03: Jon Porter
–NH-02: Charlie Bass
–NJ-07: Mike Ferguson
–NM-01: Heather Wilson
–NY-03: Peter King
–NY-20: John Sweeney
–NY-26: Tom Reynolds
–NY-29: Randy Kuhl
–NC-08: Robin Hayes
–NC-11: Charles Taylor
–OH-01: Steve Chabot
–OH-02: Jean Schmidt
–OH-15: Deborah Pryce
–OH-18: Joy Padgett
–PA-04: Melissa Hart
–PA-07: Curt Weldon
–PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick
–PA-10: Don Sherwood
–RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee
–TN-Sen: Bob Corker
–VA-Sen: George Allen
–VA-10: Frank Wolf
–WA-Sen: Mike McGavick
–WA-08: Dave Reichert

When will we start calling it the ‘offense industry’?

So I am helping to organize this benefit in Portland for humanitarian aid in Darfur, Sudan. If you’re reading this (hi, mom!) you probably already know what Darfur is, but just in case, here’s the very abbreviated version: since 2003, over 400,000 civilians have been killed and 2 million forced from their homes in an ongoing campaign of genocide carried out by armed militias known as the Janjaweed and sponsored by the Sudanese government. Many of the 2 million who have had to flee their homes are now living in refugee camps and depending on humanitarian aid groups for their very survival. A decent place to begin finding out more is the Wikipedia entry (note begin, not end).

Portland Voices for Darfur will combine local musical talent (Stephanie Schneiderman, George and Heather Penk, and the Million Voices Band) and local speakers (Jean D’Arc Campell, speaking about his work with Sudanese refugees and his experience during the Rwandan genocide, and Victoria Trabosh, president of the Itafari Foundation) in an effort to raise money for humanitarian aid in Darfur and for advocacy efforts here in the US. The event will take place on Sunday, September 10th at 7:00 PM at Congregation Havurah Shalom. The suggested donation is $25 for adults, $15 for students, all of which will go directly towards humanitarian aid in Darfur. Proceeds from a raffle at the event will be donated to the Save Darfur Coalition, a US-based advocacy group.

Want more info? See the website, or download the flier.

Ready to go? Download and print out the RSVP form and send it in to us so that we know you’re coming.

Check out the Star Trek Inspirational Posters.

The first one is the best in my opinion:

Somebody actually got paid to create this adverisement. Think about that.

A much-improved version of my logistic equation visualizer, along with a lesson plan for using it in a high-school or college classroom (written by yours truly). Is now available online at the same place as the old one (here).

The logistic equation is an interesting chaotic system which yields some very complex and interesting results from iterating a simple equation many times with feedback. Find out all about it by following the link above.

And, just to whet your appetite, here’s a screenshot: