Although Ted Stevens holds a small lead in Alaska and is the favorite to retain his seat, the outcome is not as inevitable as it might appear to be. Stevens currently holds a lead of 3,353 votes, or about 1.5 percent of the votes tallied so far. But, there are quite a large number of ballots yet to count. According to Roll Call, these include "at least 40,000 absentee ballot, 9,000 early voting ballots, and an undetermined number of questionable ballots".

Indeed, it seems possible that the number of "questionable" ballots could be quite high. So far, about 220 thousand votes have been processed in Alaska. This compares with 313 thousand votes cast in 2004. After adding back in the roughly 50,000 absentee and early ballots that Roll Call accounts for, that would get us to 270 thousand ballots, or about a 14 percent drop from 2004. It seems unlikely that turnout would drop by 14 percent in Alaska given the presence of both a high-profile senate race and Sarah Palin at the top of the ticket.

But even if Begich were to make up ground and win a narrow victory, this would seem to represent a catastrophic failure of polling, as three polls conducted following the guilty verdict in Stevens' corruption trial had Begich leading by margins of 7, 8 and 22 points, respectively.

The emerging conventional wisdom is that there was some sort of a Bradley Effect in this contest -- voters told pollsters that they weren't about to vote for that rascal Ted Stevens, when in fact they were perfectly happy to. Convicted felons are the new black, it would seem.

The problem with this theory is that the polling failures in Alaska weren't unique to Stevens. They also applied to the presidential race, as well as Alaska's at-large House seat. In each case, the Republican outperformed his pre-election polling by margins ranging from 12 to 14 points:

Did Palin rig the alaska election?

Alaska Election Fraud: What In The Hell Happened in Alaska?

BTW you don't need to reinstall Ubuntu. The issue is to do with the persistence model implemented by the udev discover process because your MAC address has changed. The easiest workaround is to edit the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and delete the lines including "'# PCI Device ..." to end. The net generator will recreate the correct entries on the next reboot.

If the networking on your virtualbox/ubuntu instance suddenly stops working when you accidentally change the mac address, this link is your salvation.

virtualbox.org :: View topic - No network interface in Guest Ubuntu

You maybe asking yourself, how do I create a MySpace app -- or where do I get started developing a MySpace app? You've found the right place. This is a rough over view in 17 steps, how to get started... I recommend you have some basic knowledge of MySpace, HTML, and PHP before you get started with this tutorial. If you're used to developing Facebook applications you'll find MySpace uses some familiar concepts. Namely, allowing you to utilize languages you are familiar with. In the case of this tutorial on how to create a MySpace App, we use DownDoggy.com hosting as a guide to get you started.

DownDoggy.com Low cost domain names, domain transfers, web hosting, email accounts, and so much more.

I learned in just those three hours that this election is not about what we think of as the "big things."

It's not about taxes. I'm pretty sure mine are going to go up no matter who is elected.

It's not about foreign policy. I think we'll figure out a way to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan no matter which party controls the White House, mostly because the people who live there don't want us there anymore.

I don't see either of the candidates as having all the answers.

I've learned that this election is about the heart of America. It's about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.

My wife and I went out last weekend to knock on more doors. But this time, not because it was her idea. I don't know what it's going to do for the Obama campaign, but it's doing a lot for me.

Jonathan Curley is a banker. He voted for George H.W. Bush twice and George W. Bush once.

My wife made me canvas for Obama; here's what I learned | csmonitor.com

The phrase ""Boil The Ocean" describes an attempt at something that is way too ambitious, effectively impossible. The first time I heard the term was several years ago from an IBM developer. I thought it was an IBM-ism but I've been hearing it more and more outside of IBM. A Google search turns up an early use of the phrase that really captures its meaning:

When asked by a reporter what to do about U-boat sinkings during World War I, Will Rogers is said to have responded: "Boil the ocean". "But how would you do that?" the reporter continued. Without a beat Rogers replied, "I'm just the idea man here. Get someone else to work out the details."

Classic.

Boil the ocean

SAN FRANCISCO -- Home entertainment trendsetters Netflix Inc. and TiVo Inc. are finally joining forces to deliver more movies and old TV episodes to their mutual subscribers, consummating a relationship that was supposed to come together four years ago.

Under the partnership announced Thursday, the latest generation of TiVo's digital video recorders will be able to beam selections from 12,000 movies and TV shows offered through Netflix's streaming service, which must be piped over high-speed Internet connections. TiVo's DVRs will start catering to Netflix subscribers in early December.

Netflix, TiVo link - Entertainment News, Technology News, Media - Variety

The Department of Justice has cleared Delta's buyout of Northwest, saying it doesn't violate antitrust laws.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The Justice Department on Wednesday approved a much-anticipated merger between Delta and Northwest, clearing the way for creation of the world's largest airline.

After a six-month investigation, government lawyers concluded the merger would likely drive down costs for consumers without curbing competition.

The proposed merger "is likely to produce substantial and credible efficiencies that will benefit U.S. consumers and is not likely to substantially lessen competition," the Justice Department said in a statement issued by its Antitrust Division.

The merger should create cost savings by combining airport operations, information technology and other efficiencies, ultimately driving down prices for fliers, the regulators said.

The decision caps a six-month Justice Department investigation, which was closed without Justice Department objection to the deal.

Delta, Northwest deal approved by the Department of Justice - Oct. 29, 2008

Great video of Gallup explaining its latest polls, which show McCain gaining with traditional voters in the last week. They put the poll into context, without all the partisan hype.

Gallup Explains Latest Poll

Preview: This multiuse trail explores the floodplain of Big Creek (Vickery Creek) from Webb Bridge Road to Mansell Road. Rob Warrilow got the idea for Big Creek Trail when he visited his son at college in Colorado, where a similar trail existed. Warrilow, an engineer for the city of Alpharetta, knew that an easement in the hundred-year floodplain of Big Creek would be a great place to build the same kind o...

Apparently is good for mountain biking.

Big Creek Trail

It looks from this that Americans (I bet Canadians and Brits too) just could not cope by about 98. They made up the balance with debt.

So as lenders pull in - what does this mean?

I think it means that the structural issue trumps the market worries. Most Americans are broke. This reality will have a long term effect.

For me - it will be about work and jobs. We have exported both to cut the costs of what we buy. We then borrowed the money to buy the stuff now made abroad.

I think that we have to help people find good work.

This won't mean going back to work for GM but new work. Local energy? Local Food?

Not just subsistence but large networks of people working for each other.

Robert Paterson's Weblog: Another view of the credit squeeze - oooh!