the tindog coffeehouse

Just in time for this year’s census, Radical Cartography has published a bunch of amazingly detailed (and beautiful) maps and charts from the census of 1870.

The data essentially reinforce what you would expect to find in the first census since the end of the Civil War: The North had a higher population overall, more foreign-born residents, much fewer African-Americans, and was much wealthier than the South. The percentage of men in the West (California, Nevada, Idaho, etc.) far exceeded the percentage of women. And the federal government, whose expenditures were almost completely limited to the military, saw the national debt explode in order to pay for the Civil War.

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Last year, I posted my picks to win the NCAA men’s tournament while admittedly not knowing enough about the teams to make even a reasonable guess. And of course, I completely blew it. (Thank you, Pitt.)

But I’m trying again this year, a little more educated and a lot more hopeful. OK, so I really don’t know how hopeful I am, but who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky.

Breaking it down by region:

Midwest. aka “The Group of Death.” The Midwest is tricky because there are a lot of wildcards, teams that are probably seeded too high (Ohio State), and others that are probably too low (Tennessee). I think the Buckeyes will make it past Oklahoma State, but the Vols will knock them off to make it to the Elite Eight. No. 1 Kansas should survive, though, and win the region.

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We’d resisted the onslaught of emails and junk mail from AT&T for a couple of years. The begging, pleading, even bribing us to sign up for U-verse service. But we were always leery, having heard story after story of the nightmares others had encountered with it. Besides, there really wasn’t that much incentive; we were still under a 2-year contract with DirecTV, and U-verse’s Internet speed wasn’t any better than the service we already had.

But our DirecTV contract expired, U-verse Internet speeds picked up, and we realized we would actually be saving about $30 every month by switching. So we took the plunge.

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It’s that time again! Random thoughts, theories, and questions from last night’s Ben-centric Lost:

• I said last week that Ben “is a character that needs to be broken emotionally, forced to admit and repent of his sins, and be redeemed in order to rise again, just as powerful as before but now on the good guys’ side.” Boy, did Cuse and Lindelof deliver on that one! What an incredibly powerful performance from Michael Emerson. Amazing!
• I also mentioned last week about the unresolved chessmatch between Ben and Widmore and said that it had to be resolved within the larger context of the Jacob/Man In Black mythology. Looks like I’ll be getting my wish by way of that submarine. The war is coming, and it’s gonna be epic.
• Funny how Sideways Ben keeps his dad alive with gas (oxygen), when Island Ben killed his with gas.

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Somewhat random thoughts and questions about last night’s zombie-filled episode of Lost:

• Whereas the past couple of episodes have been thought-provoking journeys down existential rabbit holes, last night mostly just left me scratching my head. For example…
• Why didn’t (or couldn’t) Dogen kill Sayid when he had the chance? Is it because he really can’t be killed? (He is undead after all.) Or because there are specific rules that have to be followed in order to kill him? (“An undead follower of Smokey can only be truly killed if he willingly takes poison from a trusted physician on the fourth Tuesday of the month, except for leap years or during a full moon, in which case all bets are off and you’re probably just going to end up being drowned in a bubbling pool of brown water.”)
• Or did Dogen not kill Sayid because it would nullify the agreement he signed with Jacob in exchange for his son’s resurrection? That seems to be what he was implying. (Man, Jacob puts a lot of fine print into these contracts!)

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If the Winter Olympics were run more like the BCS…

The United States, Germany, Norway, Canada and Russia will be allowed in.

But not Belarus, Kazakhstan or Liechtenstein. They’ll have to compete in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Olympics.

Unless, of course, a couple of them are unbeaten. Then they’ll play one another in the Fiesta Bowl.