Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 11/3/2008

Lots of stuff to catch up on. Sorry about the hiatus.

• GREAT HOLY JEEBUS SARAH PALIN THINKS THE PRESS FACT-CHECKING HER INFRINGES HER FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS!!!! I'm not sure how I waited this long to write about that. That's worse than Bush's "There ought to be limits on freedom" in 2000 when he found out a web site was making fun of him (I'm sorry that transcript is the best citation I can find at the moment; those morons don't think that was important news, when in fact it was the best indicator of the Bush presidency we could have had). Bush had the First Amendment wrong, but Palin has it completely backward. If you have not already done so, get thee to a poll and vote against that maniac. She CANNOT be allowed into the White House with those beliefs, especially with a far-from-zero chance of having to take over the big chair!
• I found this article about black holes over at Bad Astronomy to be very cool. I recommend it to any reader with geeky tendencies (note: this is likely all of you).
• I don't think I ever remembered to share it in Reader, but this Plant Twitter Kit is awesome. I may have to get one in part to learn to adapt it; I really really want to set up one in each of my aquariums (aquaria?), so my fish can tell me when their water needs work. Maybe I can even teach them to twitter me when they want something.
• A UT poll found that 23% of Texans still think Obama is a Muslim, compared to 5-10% nationwide. This is why I so rarely leave Austin. The rest of this state scares me.
• Holy crap, Lifehacker has a monthly summary. I need to figure out how to subscribe to just that.
• This site has a handy poll closing time grid, so you can see when important polls close relative to your timezone. I hate to believe it, let alone blog it, but there are actually a few paths to Obama essentially having this thing wrapped up by 6pm my time. My party starts at 7. Oops. I mean, I can't root against Indiana, Virginia, and/or Georgia going into Obama's column, but it'd be weird for the party to focus almost exclusively at staying around to laugh at Ted Stevens.
• Speaking of election watching, Nate Silver (of 538)'s "What to Watch For" article in Newsweek is a good read if you're planning to watch the polls rabidly like I am. Except, at least as of when I read it, he got California's Proposition 8 backward; it doesn't protect gay marriage, it puts hate into the California constitution. The hope is that conservatives/bigots will stay home and therefore not vote FOR it, because a vote for Prop 8 is a vote for hate.
• I also didn't share this one, but I can't resist fiddling with RealClearPolitics' Electoral College Map widget. My "no surprises" prediction came out the same as their "No Toss Up States" map: 338 EVs for Obama (269 needed for him to tie and, therefore, win). My "you must be smoking something" scenario is 420 EVs to Obama, and I still contend that it's possible (or maybe even more). Remind your friends that he's probably gonna win anyway, so they really should vote for him so, when they're old, they can tell the story about voting for such a historic candidate. They don't want to have to say they didn't bother to vote, do they?
• Did I mention that Palin confirmed herself to be even more batshit insane than you thought she was? Well, she did. WE CANNOT ELECT SOMEONE WITH SUCH A DANGEROUSLY BACKWARD UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONSTITUTION!! Not again, at least.

Comment below. I need to go root against the Redskins (94.4% accuracy is still better than just about any other predictor, even if obviously my skepticism doesn't allow me to really believe in this).