This report on CNN about a possible interstellar signal caught my attention, but then I saw this article on the BBC that appears to downplay the incident. How strange. Either the first article was a little too sensational or (and this is me indulging my inner conspiracy theorist) the scientific community is doing some serious double-checking before going public. In all likelihood, the signal isn’t artificial, which is a pity. It might be the one story that would be capable of distracting us from the Neverending Campaign Cycle. I can only imagine how Bush would react to such news. He would probably accuse the signal of being part of terrorist plot, terrestrial or otherwise, and put us on permanent Orange Alert.

The controversy surrounding e-balloting will not not be a factor in Minnesota on Election Day. We are sticking with machine-scannable paper ballots. To accommodate voters with disabilities, every polling station will be equipped with a device that scans the ballot and puts the text on a touch-screen. Voters can make their selection via touch-screen and, once the choices are confirmed, they are automatically transcribed to a regular paper ballot. A sip-and-puff input system is available for voters with mobility impairments and voters with visual impairments can make choices via audio cues. This seems like a good compromise between the security concerns of e-voting and the need to make voting accessible to everyone. I’m not sure if I’ll use it myself; sip-and-puff doesn’t work well for me. I do hope that the Secretary of State does some awareness building about these machines and that it encourages more people with disabilities to go to the polls. Absentee ballots are a fine alternative, but I think it’s important for people with disabilities to be seen voting alongside the rest of their communities. A lot of people have worked hard to increase accessibility at the polls. The least we can do is show up.
Someone on Bush’s speechwriting staff must have a fondness for the absurd. “Catastrophic success?” The hell? That’s a bit like saying we had to destroy the village to save it, isn’t it?

Here’s a good site for your Sunday browsing: a collection of opening hooks from various novels. I should look at my shelves and see if I can think of anything worthwhile to contribute. If you have a favorite literary opening hook, post it here.
Laura Branigan, one of the first voices in pop music that penetrated my consciousness back in the early 80s, died today. I’m going to see if I can legally download any of her songs.

People with hearing and speech disabilities can now use AOL’s instant messenger service to make regular telephone calls via relay service. The deaf community already makes extensive use of IM and this is an obvious extension of that application. AIM has a dominant presence on wireless devices as well, which means that people will be able to utilize relay service from any location that has cellular service. I may even give it a try myself. I don’t think my speech is that difficult to understand, but sometimes I have the occasional phone conversation where I must repeat myself a few times. This is especially true when I make calls for things like technical support. I don’t think those support techs in India have much experience interacting with people on ventilators. I can only imagine how freaked out they would be if they had to talk to someone who used a speech synthesizer. Let’s hope that the other big IM providers like Yahoo and MSN also implement this capability.
My building has been without hot water for the last couple days and my morning showers have become minor cardiac events. I have no idea how civilization endured before the invention of the water heater. It makes me realize that I could never cut it in a post-apocalyptic world. I’d be constantly whining about the things I missed like hot showers and cable television and air conditioning. Except that there wouldn’t be any electricity for my vent, which means I wouldn’t be whining for very long.

This morning, I discovered that news of my Humphrey Fellowship was posted on the intraweb at work. Got several nice e-mails and comments from various colleagues. It’s a little odd because I’ve been so preoccupied with Kerry campaigning and other stuff that I haven’t given much thought to the Humphrey thing. It doesn’t even begin for another month.
My new wheelchair still isn’t ready. They brought it to me on Saturday after making a slight modification, which of course didn’t do anything to address the core issue of balance. I remain unimpressed with the supply company and their efforts to get me a working chair. They aren’t very good at listening to my suggestions, which is typical of businesses that “serve” people with disabilities. But I’m stuck with them and all I can do is hope they get it back to me before Halloween.
Senator Cleland went down to Crawford, Texas to deliver a letter asking Bush to explicitly condemn the Swift Boat ads. Nobody at the ranch would accept the letter until somebody from the Bush campaign dispatched Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. Patterson offered to accept the letter if Cleland would take a letter from the Bush campaign accusing Kerry of applying a double standard to the whole incident. Cleland declined, saying he would simply drop the letter in the mail. Patterson then offered up this priceless quote:
“I tried to accept that letter and he would not give it to me,” said Patterson. “He would not face me. He kept rolling away from me. He’s quite mobile.”

It’s only going to get more absurd, people. The rabbit hole runs very deep.