What Caught My Eye Today

Fred's Note: No particular reason, other than coincidence, but most of today's entries contain a lot of numbers.

2008 Presidential Race - Here's a fascinating analysis (courtesy of fivethirtyeight.com) suggesting the probability of flipping red or blue strongholds in the the upcoming presidential election. Barack Obama pledged to put John McCain on defense with a "50-state strategy." Smart in battleground states, but perhaps a waste in other states. According to fivethirtyeight.com, the odds of flipping certain strongholds are extremely negligible (state/chance of winning):

• McCain
  • Alabama, 99%
  • Kentucky, 97%
  • Idaho, 98%
  • Oklahoma, 99%
  • Utah, 100%
  • Wyoming, 98%
• Obama
  • Washington DC, 100%
  • California, 97%
  • Massachuetts, 97%
  • New York, 98%
  • Rhode Island
  • Vermont, 99%

Should you be interested the electoral math of these projections, if these results play out, Obama would garner 108 electoral votes to McCain's 36. Nationwide, polls suggest that McCain has a slight lead over Obama, 227 to 200. That is, at least, until tomorrow's poll are released. I did some checking and it turns out that no presidential candidate has ever won an election based on poll results. Of course, that won't prevent the pundits from drowning us with polls right up until the election.

Current Affairs - Newsflash...Turns out the general population isn't exactly well informed when it comes to current affairs. Naturally, they would be if they read this blog, but it is what it is. Here are some results from a survey recently conducted by Newsweek magazine:

• 77% of those surveyed don't know who the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court is. (answer: John Roberts) I thought it was George Bush.
• 32% think that the popular vote determines the outcome if a presidential election ends in an Electoral College tie (answer: the House of Representatives breaks ties) You would think than in a democracy, the popular vote would count for more.
• 67% know that a barrel of oil costs about $140 on the world market today The other 33% obviously don't own cars
• 19% think that Alan Greenspan is still the chairman of the Federal Reserve (answer: Ben Bernanke) I'm betting that the percentage who correctly guess Bernanke was even lower.
• 80% know that TV broadcasts in the U.S. are scheduled to switch form analog to digital in 2009 This we, know. Tragic.
• 20% know the Sunnis are the largest group of Muslims worldwide. I'm kind of curious as to how much actually know that Muslim has different denominations just like Christianity.

Oil - Here's a few tidbits that you may not know about our insatiable appetite for oil. Mind you, that none of this is likely to do much to reduce the sting of gas prices, but you might feel smarter. The United States produced more than 8 million barrels of oil per day in 2006 (that's sounds like a fair bit), but it consumed more than 20 million per day (that would probably explain our dependency on oil imports). In 1993, the U.S. imported more oil than it produced. And while the U.S. ranks as the world's third largest petroleum producer, it has only the 12th largest oil reserve. The U.S. imports the majority of its oil from Canada (1,952,000 million barrels a day), followed by Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Nigeria, Venezuela and Iraq. There's a rather eclectic group of suppliers. Funny how we get most of our oil from 'friendly nations' but also rely upon slightly more dubious sources to feed our need.

Tennis - Good news, an American finally won a Grand Slam event. Of course, given that fact Venus and Serena Williams faced off against each other in the women's singles final at Wimbledon, I guess it was pretty much a sure thing. Venus Williams beat sister Serena 7-5, 6-4 for her fifth Wimbledon title and seventh Grand Slam championship. This was Venus’ first victory over her younger sibling in a Grand Slam final since the 2001 U.S. Open, and it evened their career record at 8-8. Venus, appearing in her seventh Wimbledon final, avenged her two losses to Serena in the 2002 and 2003 title matches and stopped her sister from winning her ninth Grand Slam. And they are finished yet. The Williams sisters are also playing in the women's doubles final.

Cycling - That's right, boys and girls, it's that time of year again. Alejandro Valverde of Spain won the first stage of the Tour de France with a ride through flat country, the opening of a three-week race trying to restore its luster after years of doping scandals. Good luck with that. He broke away from the pack at the end of the 123-mile leg from Brest to Plumelec and now has the distinction of wearing the leader’s yellow jersey. The 2,175-mile race ends July 27 in the French capital. Spain’s Alberto Contador is not competing, the second straight year the race has begun without a defending champion. His Astana team was banned by organizers after doping infractions by other riders. Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone. Other top names out this year are Kazakhstan’s Alexandre Vinokourov, who was removed from the Tour last year for a positive test for a blood transfusion, and Astana rider Levi Leipheimer. Ivan Basso, the 2006 Giro d’Italia winner and two-time Tour podium finisher, is also absent. The Italian is serving the last few months of a two-year ban he received after acknowledging involvement in the Spanish blood-doping investigation. I think its a rather sad commentary when the lead story is more about the riders not participating in this year's Tour. That being said, you know that I'll be hanging out with Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwin on Versus for the next 3 weeks.