A new poll from Quinnipiac University: Bush twice as bad as Nixon.

Strong Democratic sentiment pushes President George W. Bush to the top of the list when American voters pick the worst U.S. President in the last 61 years. Bush is named by 34 percent of voters, followed by Richard Nixon at 17 percent and Bill Clinton at 16 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. Leading the list for best President since 1945 is Ronald Reagan with 28 percent, and Clinton with 25 percent.

Okay, so now will people believe us when we say it might be a good idea to pick the smart guy over the dumb guy? I don’t ever want to have to go through the 2000 Election ever again.

Reagan got the nod for best President, partly because he talked about God all the time, and partly because people felt happier then and terrorism didn’t exist. Just behind Reagan was Clinton, but not among everyone:

Clinton tops the “worst” list among white Protestants – 24 percent, and white evangelical Christians – 29 percent.

I just don’t understand how some people think. Largely prosperous economy, crime rates down — hey, abortion rates were down — but for the stone-throwers in the Brigade for Decency, sexual morality is morality, and a lapse is enough to tank your legacy. Great stuff, eh?

Never mind. It seems to take forty years or so to get some historical perspective on matters of “Worst Presidency”, but if this is part of the trajectory, then maybe people are starting to see things straight.

An article that shows why your research productivity dropped off: you got married.

“The productivity of male scientists tends to drop right after marriage,” says Kanazawa in an e-mail interview from his current office at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom. “Scientists tend to ‘desist’ from scientific research upon marriage, just like criminals desist from crime upon marriage.”

I like how the writer juxtaposes research with crime.

Kanazawa’s perhaps controversial perspective is that of an evolutionary psychologist. “Men conduct scientific research (or do anything else) in order to attract women and get married (albeit unconsciously),” he says.

Yeah, that’s why I do what I do. For the chicks. Wait a minute — that’s not why I do science! Oh… wait… it’s unconscious. Guess I’ll never know now.

I just hope that now that I’ve got reproduction out of the way, I’ll be stimulated to do more research, while avoiding becoming so attractive to women that I get married again, thus ending my creative streak. Such a tightrope, isn’t it.

I was reading an article in the Bulletin about some nice young educated people who make well-reasoned porn movies.

The most surprising thing I found was a sentence (boy, am I jaded):

She’s nervous. “There are certain limitations to what I’ll do,” she says. “I’m OK with nudity but not sure how I’d feel about the X-rated stuff.” She is yet to tell Brownfield this.

Is yet to tell? I thought it would be ‘has yet to tell’. I’d never run across the ‘X is yet to do Y’ construction, but when I sprang it on three native Australian speakers (without telling them what I was looking for), they thought it was fine. Could it be a cross-cultural usage thingee?

Off I went to VIEW, a searchable implementation of the Brown corpus. Very handy.

The search “is yet to [verb]” gives 72 instances, and one third of them are something like “the [best/worst] is yet to come.” I do have to admit, “the best has yet to come” does sound a trifle odd.

On the other hand, “has yet to [verb]” gives 515 matches. Looks like American usage favours “has yet” over “is yet”.

Readers Australian and American, what say you? Does either ‘has’ or ‘is’ sound ‘funny’? We could be on the cusp of linguistic discovery, which is very exciting, even more so than the porn article.

And the word is ‘munted‘.

I dropped the cake, and now it’s looking a bit munted.

Etymology obscure.

Posting has been light this week because I’ve been on jury duty. Pretty interesting to be a part of the process. I won’t say too much about the trial, even though it’s over and all right to talk about.

But I noticed two things.

1) Law’s not a precise science, but it demands a high standard of evidence. It was interesting to see that principle being relied on so heavily in such an everyday, seemingly subjective profession.

2) Memory is really unreliable. In this case, the events happened over a year ago, and there were a couple of times where witnesses claimed to have no memory of an event, and then were shown statements they themselves had made about that event, and had to conclude that the event must have happened. This even happened with one of the police officers called to testify — someone presumably trained in that area. All of which suggests a problem with anecdotal evidence: anecdotes shift and acquire new meanings over time.

I call new rule: henceforth on Fridays I shall ‘Refresh’ the iTunes Party Shuffle, and talk you through whatever comes up. No sneaky manipulation; I give you the first five no matter how embarrassing, even if it’s 28 Days or something.

Ready? Here we go. [Click.]

Oh my gosh! What a cool set! This is the equivalent of having people drop by when you’ve just spent the whole day cleaning. It won’t always be this good, really.

Cherry Blossom Girl by Air Album: Talkie Walkie
I think this might be the finest album I have heard in a long time. I first heard Air when they had just put out “Moon Safari” and I thought it was funny, sort of eighties analogue throwback. But now they’ve really outgrown their original concept, and just made really beautiful music in the way they know how. There is not one ‘skip song’ on this entire album, and even my favourite albums have one. I would love to take Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin and lock them in a room and make them listen to nothing but Duruflé, and then see what they do.

Forever Young by Youth Group Album: Forever Young (Single)
You can tell I’m old because I remember when Alphaville did this song in 1983? 4? Okay, even if I can’t remember, it’s still a good song, and the kids from Youth Group have done a good job on it, keeping the drumbeats steady, letting loose the rockishness close to the end. Minus points for you if you only know about the song because it was on the O-friggin’-C.

The World is Sick by Machine Translations Album: Bad Shapes
I really like MT. This album’s an early one, and this copy contains a brief message to me from Mr J Walker himself. What a guy. Oh, the song. It’s okay. Acoustic guitar mixed with his trademark electronic touches. Strings add atmosphere. You should check it out.

Rotund For Success by Severed Heads Album: Rotund for Success
Severed Heads? you ask. That sounds pretty hardcore. No, I reassure you. They used to be industrial and experimental, but Tom Ellard has polished and honed that Severed Sound to what could perhaps be called a dancy sheen. This album is lost and wandering; Tom sings slantwise across the strange chords. Bonus lyric: Aircraft adorn my hair/Small boats adhere to my feet/I may be omnipotent, but/I can be discreet.

Hollywood Freaks by Beck Album: Midnite Vultures
I did not really get this album until I realised it was a goof; he’s doing a piss-take on soul/funk. But it’s a piss-take that sounds better than an actual soul album, and therein lies the genius. It’s a late-night party, and it’s hilarious. Fantastic bass riff. What the hell is that one guy shouting? Beck giggles at the end of the track so you know he’s just kidding.

Good job everyone! It’s a rap.

Does it make me more interesting if I tell you that number six was ‘The Way You Move’ from Outkast’s album Speakerboxxx?
No?

‘Talk Like a Pirate Day’ is so 2004. Zombies say it all. Or at least mumble it all.

About 100 undead lurched from the Sydney Town Hall to the Opera House today as part of the city’s inaugural Zombie Lurch.

Carrying banners that read ‘I crave the flesh of the living, and I vote’ and ‘What do we want? Brains!’, the ghouls shambled through the city, watched by police and wary onlookers, to raise awareness of zombie rights.

More photos here.

I would totally join in the Zombie Lurch if they had one in Perth.

Update: God damn it! Why does no one ever tell me when these things are on? I am so out of it. When is the next one?

I blogged about phantom cats recently. Well, now they’re coming to a movie theatre near you. And probably literally, not just in movie form.

The mystery big cat thought to prowl the Blue Mountains is set to star in a horror movie.

A Sydney-based team will start filming in the coming months, drawing inspiration from repeated sightings of the giant cat, whose existence has yet to be officially verified.

Yes, Australia’s own version of the Nottingham Lion.

I have a few questions.

1) When will people hold off believing in stuff until better-than-anecdotal evidence comes along?

2) Will the exposure from this movie help intelligent people realise that the phenomenon is fake (like ‘The X-Files’ did with UFOs), or will it cement the idea of phantom cats in the consciousness of more credulous people (like ‘The X-Files’ did with UFOs)?

3) What is it with cats?

Update: I do see that stories of phantom dogs are out there, too. Notice this quote from the page:

Phantom black dogs have been witnessed too frequently in modern times to parcel the phenomena as pure folklore and legend, but then folklore and legend often has origins in real events.

Uh, wrong. No matter how many anecdotes you get, it never equates to reliable data.

I’ve been teaching a class called “English: The World’s Language”, sort of a historical and linguistic look at English and why it is like it is. A very natural question: Why is English so popular? Why is there no other language that has so many learners?

I like to think of it like computer operating systems. Right now, Windows is the dominant OS. It’s not the easiest to use, or the nicest, but it does have a few advantages:

• It has a huge user base.
• There’s a lot of software written for it.
• It’s a pain to change platforms.
• Microsoft was in the right place at the right time, and made the right moves. It has been relentlessly aggressive in promoting Windows.

English is the same way. It has wonky orthography, and learners have a terrible time remembering the irregular verbs and nouns. But:

• It has a huge user base, 4th in the world in terms of native speakers.
• There’s a vast body of literature written in English, not to mention science, technology, and most of what’s on the Internet.
• Some historical accidents have placed English in the position it’s in. What if Americans had for some reason spoken something else? And British imperialism and American military might have spread English far beyond its pool of native users.

This ananlogy between computers and languages is apt because both areas involve the issue of standards. Communities need to agree on file format and language in order to get business done, and some standards will win the struggle.

I don’t know what’s stranger: that PETA has a Sexiest Vegetarian poll, or that Prince won it.

Also, I think we have to re-evaluate Morrissey’s sexiness in the light of the lyrics from his new album.

There are explosive kegs
Between my legs
Dear God, please help me

Prince over that? I mean, come on.