Since the release of the Ben Stein movie Expelled, about Intelligent Design, Roger Ebert has undoubtedly been asked many times why he has not reviewed it. In his own words, he has been “accused of refusing to review” the film. He has now reviewed it and his review is excellent:

Ben Stein, you hosted a TV show on which you gave away money. Imagine that I have created a special edition of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” just for you. Ben, you’ve answered all the earlier questions correctly, and now you’re up for the $1 million prize. It involves an explanation for the evolution of life on this planet. You have already exercised your option to throw away two of the wrong answers. Now you are faced with two choices: (A) Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, or (B) Intelligent Design.

Because this is a special edition of the program, you can use a Hotline to telephone every scientist on Earth who has an opinion on this question. You discover that 99.975 of them agree on the answer (A). A million bucks hangs in the balance. The clock is ticking. You could use the money. Which do you choose? You, a firm believer in the Constitution, are not intimidated and exercise your freedom of speech. You choose (B).

I’m glad Ebert watched it so I don’t have to.

Elephants, like many of us, enjoy a good malted beverage when they can get it. At least twice in the past ten years, herds in India have stumbled upon barrels of rice beer, drained them with their trunks, and gone on drunken rampages. (The first time, they trampled four villagers; the second time they uprooted a pylon and electrocuted themselves.) Howler monkeys, too, have a taste for things fermented. In Panama, they’ve been seen consuming overripe palm fruit at the rate of ten stiff drinks in twenty minutes. Even flies have a nose for alcohol. They home in on its scent to lay their eggs in ripening fruit, insuring their larvae a pleasant buzz. Fruit-fly brains, much like ours, are wired for inebriation.

The seductions of drink are wound deep within us. Which may explain why, two years ago, when John Gasparine was walking through a forest in southern Paraguay, his thoughts turned gradually to beer.

The full article can be found in The New Yorker.

I predict Barack Obama will win with 326 electoral votes to John McCain’s 212. The map will look something like this:

My state-by-state predictions are in a Google Spreadsheet.

I think we will know if Obama has won when the returns start coming in for VA and NC. If those are closer than predicted, it could be a long night. If, on the other hand, the networks call one or both of those early in the night, we could be looking at a real landslide.

Cameras, originally uploaded by NathanF.

I went to the Obama rally in Orlando today. It was Obama’s first public appearance with Hillary Clinton since June. As you can see from the photo, I wasn’t the only person at the rally with a camera.

There are plenty more photos from the rally on my Flickr account.

The electoral vote map for today looks… interesting.

All you have to do is switch NM to the Dem column and CO to the Rep column and you have the electoral tie:

It should also be noted that today’s map is almost completely identical to the Kerry-Bush map from four years ago.

Questions for Obama from a libertarian perspective:

In February, you said you might support vouchers and charter schools if empirical data showed that they improve education some studies show that they do. Admirably, your position was, “I will not allow my predispositions to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn.” After pressure from the teachers unions, you quickly backed off from that position, stating that your campaign doesn’t support vouchers “in any shape or form.” What prompted that change? And if it’s important that we not “throw up our hands” and “walk away from the public schools,” why do you send your own kids to private schools?

Interview: Soren Johnson - Spore ’s Strategist

Designer and programmer Soren Johnson came to work at Maxis on Spore in late 2007, after more than 5 years working as a designer on the Civilization series at Firaxis. Most notably, he programmed the AI for Civilization III and then stepped up to lead designer and AI creator on the acclaimed Civilization IV - so adding him was a significant coup for Will Wright’s Emeryville-based team.

He brings to the now almost-finished Spore project, which will debut in full this September, an understanding of what gamers want and expect - both from the micro level of how the controls work, to the macro level of how AI should behave in a strategy game.

At a recent event related to the game, Gamasutra sat down to talk in-depth with Johnson, somewhat of a public face for the game in its late stages.

Independence Day, originally uploaded by NathanF.

Happy 4th!