Snip, Snip and Link, Link

So I finally made it out to get get my hair cut. I hate going and I always put it off longer than I should. But it was a such a beautiful day today that I decided to walk to the salon and do the deed. Nothing new. Same style, only shorter. But it felt good to get out and stretch my legs in the sunshine.

Sweetie got an invitation to shop a special sale at Best Buy that's supposedly closed to the general public. Only "premiere" club members have been invited. So he wants to head over there at 8:30 tonight. I can't think of anything we need, but that doesn't necessarily mean we'll leave empty handed. I think Sweetie mostly wants to check out what one of these closed events is all about, me, I'm skeptical of the whole "exclusive" thing.

On to the links.

I read this short article about flu shots today. I'd never heard of the herd immunity concept. I usually avoid flu shots. Maybe I need to rethink that, though I'm not typically in any herd situations other than the cube farm.

I spent some time on the web looking at state voter maps by county after the election, mostly looking at California and my home state of Oregon. In the process I found a couple interesting maps interpreting voting patterns. This one supposedly shows what the vote would have looked like if left just to the 18 - 29 year-old demographic. I have no idea what the source for the data is on that. Honestly, that much blue scares me.

Here's another map I find far more interesting (and probably more reliable too). I like how they distort the map into a cartogram to more accurately depict population and electoral influence. I especially like the map where they break the results down by county and then use purple to represent voter percentages. Visually, it makes the nation seem much less divided.

I spent some time on the WSJ site today. I found this story on the trajectory of the Republican party's swing from intellectual (1970s) to anti-intellectual (today) particularly interesting. I wasn't old enough in the 70s to pay any particular attention to politics.

I also read this interview with newly appointed Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel. I was a little concerned that Emanuel would pull the administration to the left, but from his comments here, it sounds like they'll really be trying to hold the center. That makes me feel a bit better given the sentiments I expressed earlier.