You might think this woman is looking at a portrait of herself

but it is actually a mirror. If you were to stand in front of it, it would resemble you. There’s more on it at the very interesting oliveloaf design blog, including a fascinating video showing how it works.

If you are following the upcoming U.S. presidential elections and you are interested in how it is going to turn out, consider going to this site, FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right.

The name comes from the “number of electors in the electoral college” and it has the mission of accumulating and analyzing “polling and political data in way that is informed, accurate and attractive. Most narrowly, to give you the best possible objective assessment of the likely outcome of upcoming elections.”

I’ve seen a number of other sites reference it, and I can see why. It can put lots of numbers at your fingertips. So if you want to join the punditocracy :), or you are trying to cut through all the chatter to get a better sense of how the election will turn out, pay it a visit.

Sometimes greatness in sport is shown with dominance. Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps are examples of that at this year’s Beijing Olympics. Another way to show greatness is dealing with adversity. Paula Radcliffe demonstrated that amply in the women’s mararthon event, though I felt she didn’t get enough credit for that.

Adam van Koeverden also gave a good example of dealing with adversity in bounching back from his “shocking eighth in the 1,000 metres” race to go on and win the silver in the 500 metre race. It must have been difficult to get over the shock of losing like that. But he did, and in the long run, it may make him a greater athlete in the years to come.

So hats off to him. And for more on the story, you can read Christie Blatchford’s article in the globeandmail.com: Van Koeverden rebounds for silver.

Great stuff all ’round.

(Linked photo above from: Shaun Best/Reuters)