Electronic voting will be Georgia’s chance for fame or infamy 11/04/02. Tomorrow, Georgia becomes the first state to have a state-wide modern voting system. We’ll be using touch screen computers with magnetic cards. They’ve been demo’d all over the place for the last few weeks, and they’re really quite nice. No more lever pulling!

Hate email spam? Want to sort your email into different categories? Then you may agree with me that POPFile may be one of the best programs ever. It might soundlike a bit of work to set up if you’re not a whiz on the computer, but don’t worry – it’s not. And thank to recent hig-exposure press, it’s getting even easier.

In 1997, the centuries-old only known giant golden spruce near Port Clements, British Columbia was cut down in the dead of night by Grant Hadwin. This action, labeled eco-terrorism, was his attempt to call attention to the mis-management of British Columbia’s timber resources. Days before his court appearance, he disappeared. The New Yorker tells the story. Found via Robot Wisdom.

Robert Flores is the man who shot two nursing professors, a student, and himself at the University of Arizona last week. One of his last acts before the shootings was to mail a 23 page letter trying to explain himself to a local newspaper. That letter has been scanned in and posted in its entirety by the Arizona Star. (Note: the server is very slow and you are likely to get “timeout” errors at some or all of the pages. Just hit relaod until it comes through.) Compare that with a letter written by Cheryl McGaffic, one of his victims.

"College. Huh! What is it good for? Absolutly nothing!" Poppycock, I say. College is about more than what's learned in classes. If one takes advantage of the opportunities to be found at college (many attendees don't -- this is part of the problem), one will leave a much richer person.
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The lovely wife and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary yesterday, mostly by trying to convince the cats to accept the new puppy. A good time was had by all, except for the cats.

Progressive Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone was killed in plane crash today. Not only does this crash silence one of the best Senators we had (he was fighting a very tight re-election campaign), it also temporarily places the control of the Senate in to Governor Jesse Ventura’s hands.

This last weekend, I cashed in the money I received for directing the play in Commerce for two greenhouses for the farm. They’re much like these, but 14 feet wide and 48 feet long. In them, we’ll be able to start all of our vegetable seedlings and extend the growing season considerably. I’m excited to get them, and am looking forward to building them in the upcoming weeks. I never thought I’d be able to afford them so soon, but a local nursery makes their own and sells the pieces to other area growers for little more than cost. So they were a fraction of what I’d thought they’d cost us. In other farm news, we scoped out the local small animal livestock auction the other night. I’d hoped to see what the goats looked like, but there weren’t any of those. Instead, there were many, many birds (with a few fighting cocks in there) and rabbits. We ended up buying a couple guinea fowl, possibly a boy and a girl. They are very pretty and yet somehow among the ugliest birds I’ve ever seen. And loud. They’re very good at eating ticks and (supossedly) fire ants. They make loud screeches at anything they don’t know (though with the memory span of a goldfish, that’s most everything). We really got them to help us battle to large Cooper’s Hawks that have set up home on our land. They’ve already gotten at least one chicken, and we’re trying to persuade them to go eat elsewhere. I’m hoping they’re just passing through on the migratory trail. Also, a puppy may be arriving soon.

I’m not one to usually do plugs for commercial sites here, but when I find one that’s worth while, I ought to share it. So let me push Audible.com out at you. These guys have thousands of audio-books for the downloading. Once you’ve got them, you can listen on your computer, on a wide range of MP3 players, your palm or pocket computers, and even your CD player. The cost can add up if you buy a book at a time, but I’ve been on the Audible Listener plan for a while, which lets me select a book a month (no matter the price) and a subscription to a periodical. ( I choose a subscription to This American Life each month. Even though I could listen for free from their website, Audible lets me listen in my car whenever I want to.) The books I’ve selected range from a $90 18-hour history of Rome to Ray Bradbury reading the complete Martian Chronicles (complete with unscripted commentary between each part of the book!) to popular social history books from James Burke and similar writers. A travelogue through southern Appalachia, Fast Food Nation , How the Irish Saved Civilization. I had guessed that most audio-books were edited versions of the printed original, but I’ve found that most all of them are unabridged. So, it’s been a great bargain for me. $12.95 a month to learn and be entertained while I drive. If you decide it’s a good deal for you, too, tell ’em ewagoner sent you.

Exterminate! Exterminate (your high heating bills)!