E-mail address matters to spamsters

Here is a fascinating paper which seems to indicate that spam hits different email addresses at different rates; i.e., addresses starting with “a” will get more spam than addresses starting with “z”.  If you want to minimize your email account’s spam propensity, start your address with a number.

Hillary delegates for McCain?

One of the unfathomable new stories of this latest presidential campaign is the alleged preponderance of unsatisfied Hillary Clinton delegates who are so upset with the outcome of the Democratic Presidential nomination process that they are proclaiming they will be voting for McCain.

It is unclear to me, on the surface, how any true-supporter of Clinton could even contemplate voting for the Republican ticket or for John McCain specifically.  My first explanation is that the media is over-emphasizing the number of Hillary delegates in this category; in any group of humans, there is bound to be some wackos whose agendas are not very clear or logical.  Our media process is good at locating these contra-stories, especially if the subjects are vocal and saavy at media manipulation.

So, what if this is not media-generated “news?”  I can only conclude that anti-Obama/Hillary-delegates are either racists, feministas, Republican moles, or seriously mixed-up citizens whose minds may have been destroyed by too many hours of TV viewing.   The notion of a citizen professing strong emotional allegiance toward Sen. Clinton’s aspirations turning around to be anti-black is a real stretch.  There may be a few rigidly anti-male feminists among them but there can’t be many.  Similarly, the number of elected delegates that could be Republican agent provocateurs has to be minuscule.  That leaves the seriously mixed-up.

While it is believable that there is a number of seriously mixed up delegates in the mix, how can a significant number ignore the directions of Sen. Clinton herself, who unofficially and officially released her delegates from voting for her and, to her credit, pointed out that anyone supporting her causes, such as universal healthcare and woman’s rights, should be voting for Mr Obama.

It seems to me that this notion of “Hillary delegates for McCain” is not relevant and an example of manufactured news.

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This is a birch tree which probably became the subject of a yellow-bellied sapsucker’s search for food; sapsuckers are known to punch holes in regularly spaced, straight lines (see Peterson’s Guide, for ex.)

Red Sox A.M. (After Manny): weekend no. 1

The sox completed their first weekend without Manny: 3 wins, 0 losses.