Free Republic

You may not realize it, but when you tell the grocer you'd like a half-dozen eggs for your family of six, you're using a primitive numbering system. Anthropologists believe that such object-specific counting, in which words like "half-dozen" and "six" denote the same quantity but refer to different objects, preceded abstract counting systems, in which any number can describe any object. Now, a study of Pacific Island languages suggests that counting systems can also evolve in reverse, becoming more object-specific. People on the Polynesian island of Mangareva take object-specific counting to the extreme. They tally some things, such as unripe...

VIENNA, Austria -- Organizers of a campaign trying to clear Vienna's streets of dog droppings urged residents Thursday to record how many turds they see in the space of five minutes and report the figure as part of an impromptu census. The Vienna Dog-Dropping Initiative said it would compile the figures and present them to city officials on Monday as part of its stepped-up effort to pressure the Austrian capital to deal with the problem.

Counting on victory in November, Democrats outline plansHomeland security, a boost to the minimum wage and White House investigations top legislative agenda By Jonathan Weisman WASHINGTON POST Posted on Sun, May. 07, 2006 WASHINGTON - Democratic leaders, increasingly confident they will seize control of the House in November, are laying plans for a legislative blitz during their first week in power that would raise the minimum wage, roll back parts of the Republican prescription drug law, implement homeland security measures and reinstate lapsed budget deficit controls. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said last week that a Democratic House...

Washington DC -- April 4, 2006: In an alarming wake-up call to voting rights activists accross the country, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand last week a decision by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The lower court ruled (Landes v Tartaglione, et al) that Philadelphia journalist and voting rights activist, Lynn Landes, had no standing to challenge the constitutionality of election laws which Landes claimed deny direct access to a tangible ballot and meaningful transparency to the election process.Specifically, Landes challenged the use of voting machines and absentee voting in elections for public office. The defendants in the...

Counting the cost of bird flu By Toby Poston BBC News business reporter Politicians are advising shoppers that chicken is safe to eat The first lorry loads of cut-price Italian poultry have arrived in UK meat markets, less than a week after a bird flu outbreak hit Italy. With demand dropping in their home market, Italian farmers are seeking to offload supplies and are cutting back heavily on production. In the UK, the cheap imports, although temporary, will make it harder for domestic poultry producers to make a profit. Meanwhile, risk management training company, Business Forums International (BFI), is getting...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Votes were being counted after Iraq's legislative election saw a strong turnout with minimal violence, bringing hope for a nation wracked by sectarian conflict, with the prospect also of tempting minority Sunnis back to the political process. Electoral officials briefly extended Thursday's voting owing to the turnout, which preliminary estimates put at between 60 and 80 percent, surpassing an October referendum, with Sunni Arabs casting ballots in record numbers. "Turnout was very strong in all regions, even in Fallujah," a Sunni city in the rebel Al-Anbar province, senior electoral official Hussein Hindawi said. The huge task of...

Thoughtful Democrats — the rarest birds on the endangered species list — might want to ponder this: "Another hanging chad has dropped. His name is John G. Roberts Jr., and he undoubtedly will turn out to be opposed to abortion rights, affirmative action, an expansive view of federal powers and a reading of the Constitution that takes a properly suspicious view of the state's embrace of religion. You hang enough chads, and you get to change the Supreme Court." That's not moveon.org, or the wilder shores of the Internet. That's Richard Cohen, big-time columnist in that bastion of mainstream media,...

WENATCHEE, Wash. -- An expert witness for Republicans challenging the 2004 election of Gov. Christine Gregoire testified Thursday that when illegal votes are subtracted, the GOP candidate was the rightful winner. The state Republican Party and candidate Dino Rossi challenged the election after Gregoire's 129-vote victory, the closest margin of any governor's contest in the nation's history. The challengers are alleging fraud and worker errors, and want the court to nullify the election, which would lead to a new race between Rossi and Gregoire. Cal Tech political science Professor Jonathan Katz testified the way to tell who really won the...

Due to copyright stuff, I can't post the text of the article on FR. link

"If you don't build it, they won't come." That philosophy, courtesy of the administration of former Gov. Jerry Brown, has corrupted California's growth both at the state and local level for the last three decades. This is the idea that if we stopped building freeways, water projects, universities and power plants, we wouldn't be able to sustain future growth and people would stop coming here. They didn't. As a result, we are now facing massive shortages and deterioration of our state's infrastructure, even as the population continues to grow beyond the capacity of our roads and freeways. And yet in...

Women are better at instant counting than men, a mass mathematical experiment has revealed. Over 18,000 people took part in the research, using touch screens inserted among interactive exhibits at a science exhibition in Bristol, UK. The study confirms that the brain has two distinct ways of counting, an idea first proposed 50 years ago. "If I hold up three fingers, most people don't need to count how many there are," says lead scientist Brian Butterworth, from University of College London. But for more than a handful of objects, the time needed by people for their calculation jumps and increases...

<p>Rob McGarvey is, in the lingo of the blackjack world, an advantage player. A card counter. To maximize his take, he keeps track of the cards as they're dealt, and tailors his bets based on the cards his system predicts will hit the felt next.</p>

<p>How would America have reacted to Sept. 11 had Al Gore been president?</p> <p>Or, more to the point, how would Al Gore have reacted to Sept. 11?</p> <p>Judging by his speech the other day to the Commonwealth Club of California, the answer is: Weakly.</p> <p>Tentatively.</p> <p>Maybe not at all.</p>

Posted as a courtesy to FR insomniacs. I'm having dinner and will NOT be able to watch.