It's been even split in the polls, but that doesn't reflect geography at all (as one example)

Now, I am questioning his sanity. I do not get why he is so self-destructive.

Yeah, I don't know what the hell that's about. Clearly he needs something.

I have not been looking closely at his projections of the Presidential race because I have been tense lately.

OTOH, I've been refreshing like a lab rat pressing a lever because I have been tense lately. Election is nigh! I need actual data with an actual model behind it and not just yahoos on tv taking one crap poll out of context!

I'm curious what the numbers are for "real" meridian-points acupuncture vs random-needles-anywhere acupuncture.

The sham treatments considered in the meta-analyis were pretty heterogeneous (e.g. needles that do not puncture the skin), and did not really test the theory underlying acupuncture, just the procedure. There are many reasons that the sham and experimental treatments could differ, including, for instance, that people who undergo a more uncomfortable treatment are more likely to have a bias to report that it resulted in a greater reduction in pain.

So the results for acupuncture are pretty similar to those for chiropractic: the procedures show some effectiveness for chronic pain, even though there are absolutely no data to suggest that they are effective for the reasons supposed by acupuncturists and chiropractors.

But honestly, tests of presumed mechanisms are pretty rare in medicine. If something works, it gets used. Good on acupuncture. The procedure seems to have small but detectible effects.

I have not been looking closely at his projections of the Presidential race because I have been tense lately.

OTOH, I've been refreshing like a lab rat pressing a lever because I have been tense lately. Election is nigh! I need actual data with an actual model behind it and not just yahoos on tv taking one crap poll out of context!

I work in a part of town that is ridiculously conservative, virtually all-white, and large with the we-love-the-Republicans-and-have-fundraisers-for-them attitude.

When I was out running errands at lunch, I saw 10 (TEN!) yard signs for Obama, and only 1 (ONE!!!1!) for Romney.

Granted that that's not super predictive, and the election is, what? Seven weeks away? But still. When this part of town is backing Obama, I suddenly feel like he's going to win by a much larger margin than I was envisioning. (I was previously envisioning a razor-thin margin, but still an Obama victory.)

The "margin" thing is weird, because I bet he does great in the electoral college, but the overall popular vote may still be close-ish. All information gleaned from pulleditoutofmyass.com.

Remember the pizza guy who bear-hugged Obama yesterday? Yep, that turned into controversy too.

WINGNUTS FURIOUS: OBAMA HUGGED A WHITE GUY

Scott Van Duzer, the charming beefy pizzeria owner who gave Presidident Barack Obama a big ol’ bear hug the other day, says that he has been targeted for retribution by angry Republicans who are boycotting his Fort Pierce, Florida, restaurant. He was also the target of a brief war on Yelp, between negative and positive reviews, most of which came, of course, from “reviewers” who have probably never even been to Florida for chrissakes and what is WITH people anyway?

Van Duzer, a Republican who voted for Obama in 2008, rode his bicycle over 1000 miles from Florida to Washington DC earlier this year to raise money for a charity he founded to promote blood donations in St. Lucie County, Florida. Obama scheduled the campaign visit in part because of Van Duzer’s civic-mindedness. The president-hugging pizza man says that, in the wake of his moment on Youtube,

“People are saying a lot of bad things and boycotting my restaurant…There’s no middle line anymore, and that’s exactly what’s wrong with our country right now.”

Apparently conservatives are really mad at this guy because he's a Republican.

Heaven forbid you can be gracious when the President of our fucking country comes by to thank you for your good works.

Heaven forbid.

Did I mention I have been tense lately?

Fight the power, pizza guy. Fight it with your hugs.