Have you heard of the Tom Glazer Singing Science records?  Tom Glazer (1914-2003) was a folk singer best known for the song "On Top of Spaghetti" (!!!).  He started this series of albums of educational science songs.  And when I was young and showed some interest in science my folks got me a few of these, and one of my buddies had a couple more of them.  I thought they were fascinating, and so my future as a nerd was pretty much guaranteed from there on.  Even the cover art is wonderous.

They've been out of print for several decades, but thanks to the interweb we have them back.  A local fellow named Jef Poskanzer found a complete set in his parent's basement and went about making mp3 copies.  Check'm out here:

http://www.acme.com/jef/science_songs

I've burned the complete collection up for the twins, and the science songs have been in heavy rotation at bedtime ever since.  They are really, really dated, in a fun boy scout, atomic age and musical cliche kind'a way.

And of course They Might Be Giants did a rendition of "Why Does the Sun Shine?" that has become somewhat popular.

(Note that the guitarist on the early records is Tommy Motola, later the head of Sony Music, married to Mariah Carey, and accused by Michael Jackson of being "uh... devilish".)

The old Mad Magazine I grew up with is still published, in basically the same form, although the current version is not nearly as endearing.

One of my favorite features of Mad was the Don Martin cartoons; weirdly grotesque characters, a goofy slapstick sense of humor, and most physical actions included a written description of an odd sound effect.

My old joke was, "I wonder what noise Don Martin will make when he dies?".

Don Martin actually did pass away in January 2000, cancer, age 68.  (I don't know what noises were involved.)

Anyway, for your amusement, here is the Don Martin Dictionary of Sounds:

http://www.collectmad.com/madcoversite/dmd-alphabetical.html

That's right; a Don Martin fan with a somewhat complete Mad Magazine collection and a lot of free time has put together the definitive index of Don Martin Noises.  Both alphabetical and chronological listings are available.  As they should be.

It turns out that some of the writers on The Simpsons have advanced degrees in mathematics.  And so there are some fascinating bits of math references sprinkled around the shows.

It's all detailed at http://www.simpsonsmath.com

I voted yesterday morning, of course, using one of those new touchscreen computerized voting machines.  I think I ended up voting for Scott Peterson being guilty.

Silicon Valley is heavily democratic.  How democratic?  My neighborhood is covered with numerous Kerry/Edwards lawn signs, and the only Bush/Cheney lawn sign I've seen has been vandalized with spray paint.

MTV's youth-oriented "Vote or Die" campaign was deemed a failure in that very few young people actually voted.  Best headline was: "Vote or Die or Whatever" (Drudge).