DESPERATION IN MASSACHUSETTS? “The scuttlebutt is that the charges aren’t about overturning the election, but about providing a pretext for delaying Brown’s swearing-in.” That would be highly unwise, which — based on recent history — would suggest it’s probably the plan . . . .

UPDATE: “Note the date on the press release.”

REMEMBERING the Apple Lisa. “Sure — you’re all fancy now with that multitouch iPhone. You wiggle and writhe like an idiot to operate your Nintendo Wii. Maybe you’ve got your eye on a breath-controlled laptop — because using a mouse to work on your computer is so 20th-century. But you owe it all to one of Apple’s earliest and most magnificent failures.”

BUT DON’T LET THIS CAUSE YOU TO ASK ANY AWKWARD QUESTIONS: “The BBC reports that the Vice Chairman of the IPCC has just admitted the obvious: the IPCC’s terrifying prediction that the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 is wrong. And not just a little bit wrong. Totally, catastrophically, eye-poppingly, inexcusably and blatantly wrong.”

BRUCE WALKER: Fabian Conservatism. “Fabian Conservatism means always moving to the right when we can and never supporting the left, but it also means that the transformation of America will come in increments. Fabian Conservatism means sometimes finding strange bedfellows (making common cause with leftists who have a particular ax to grind).”

HEH: “Damn, these guys are good.”

WHAT’S MISSING TODAY IN MASSACHUSETTS? Exit polls.

But there are some answers here.

HOW THE DEMS MIGHT slow Brown down if he wins.

MANAGING DISASTERS with small steps. “Promoters share a belief that while the conventional top-down approach, by governments and large relief agencies coming in with large projects, works for initial relief and recovery, long-term reconstruction —’building back better,’ in the parlance of redevelopment specialists — requires more involvement of local people.”

VOTING’S A FORMALITY ANYWAY: Boston Globe posts “results” online already.

Just remember what the man said: If it’s not close, they can’t cheat.

DIAMOND OCEANS on Uranus and Neptune?

And before you start emailing me diamond/Uranus jokes, just go read this and admit that reality is stranger than anything you can come up with.

MILES O’BRIEN: This Week In Space.

COPTERS FROM THE VINSON in Haiti. And here’s a report on logistics.

UPDATE: Boots on the ground.

The security is far from heavy-handed. The leaders here have said they see no threat from the local people, and they try to project that in their presence. Today, the Soldiers were told to sling their rifles across their back, rather than holding them in the ready front position as is customary for most of these battle-hardened Soldiers.

Also, no orders are barked. Men are referred to as “Sir,” and the women as “Ma’am.”

Yesterday, when the crowd became rowdy and tried to push forward, the captain in charge told his troops simply to sit down in the grass and stop passing out the meals. This quieted the crowd, which quickly realized that if they did not calm down, they would not any rations.

Read the whole thing.

BOSTON GLOBE: For Coakley, Ominous Sign. “All my friends voted for Obama. A lot of them were like me. It was the first time we voted. Even older people in my family, it was the first time they voted. Everybody thought things would get better. But they haven’t. I know a lot of people who have lost their houses this year. It’s sad. All my friends are saying Obama promised a lot but he’s doing nothing. I don’t know if that’s true. But that’s what my friends are saying.’’

VOTE FRAUD IN MASSACHUSETTS? You’re Not Supposed to Get an Absentee Ballot in a Box of Cracker Jacks. Video at the link.

Gerard van der Leun: “There’s your margin of fraud right there.”

UPDATE: An open thread to report vote-fraud incidents.

POSITIONING: Nanoscale Robot Arm Places Atoms and Molecules with 100% Accuracy.

59-YEAR-OLD WOMAN PREGNANT after giving birth at age 57.

WHY ARE IMAGES FROM HAITI more lurid than images from other disasters?

GRAND CAYMAN EARTHQUAKE. Luckily, no reported major damage or injury. (Via Doug Weinstein).

IN THE MAIL: The Art of Contrarian Trading: How to Profit from Crowd Behavior in the Financial Markets.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO Lysander Spooner.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Double Down.

TIGHT MASSACHUSETTS RACE ALARMS CALIFORNIA DEMS. As it should. (Via NewsAlert).

Plus, from Don Surber: “The problem for el presidente is right now most American voters prefer doing nothing to the one giant compost heap that this adminsitration has created of the economy.”

STEVEN LEVY: Cellphones and Kafka.

ZOGBY IS PREDICTING a Coakley win. Well, I think it all depends on turnout, etc. Emphasis, perhaps, on the etc.

UPDATE: Brown’s obviously focusing on turnout, with a VoterBomb to follow up the money-bomb of last week.

Meanwhile, a Massachusetts reader emails:

I voted in an upper-middle class Boston suburb this morning around 9:00 AM. The polling place was very busy. Short wait time, but still a stream of people going in and out. I drove by another nearby polling place that was busy. Both locations had two Brown volunteers (in the slushy snow) on the street with signs, one was homemade. No Coakley volunteers, just one sign stuck in a snowbank.

I stopped for a haircut at a place with two old guys who know everyone and make it a habit to collect local information. They said LOTS of people are voting for Brown. One of them said he grew up here in a Catholic neighborhood where his grandmother basically told him you wouldn’t get into heaven if you voted Republican. He said he’s taking his chances and voting for Brown. He was adamant about it.

We’ll see how many there are like him. And reader Rich Andrews emails:

I voted this morning in the Mass Senate race. Here are some random observations/thoughts.

Got to the polling place about 6:45; there were about 10 people ahead of me in line. By the time the polls opened at 7, the line was out the door.

Usually special and off year elections get about 15% to 25% turnout. One of the local news stations said that the turnout for this election was expected to be 70%.

When you consider that something like 52% of the registered voters in Massachusetts are independent (technically the term here is “unenrolled”) and that polls show them breaking 2 to 1 for Brown this could be a day I never thought I see here in the People’s Republic.

Local news stations are also reporting that the demand for absentee ballots had been very high. If there is fraud in this election, this is where it will come from. I hope that the margin of victory is much greater than the margin of fraud.

The last time that Massachusetts elected a Republican to the Senate, I was in eighth grade. I’m now 50.

I’ve been voting in here since 1982. This is the first time that my actually counted for anything. I’d like to get used to that feeling.

I’m not sure when Martha Coakley would be up for re-election as Attorney General. If she loses this election which is the closest thing politics has to a gimme, her political career will be over.

Good riddance to bad trash…

Well, stay tuned.

HAITI UPDATE: Aid to Haiti Speeds Up, but Delays Mar Effort.

One week after an earthquake pulverized Haiti, emergency supplies of water, food and medicine are beginning to reach large numbers of the country’s desperate survivors. The number of U.S. troops in Haiti is expected to reach about 10,000 by midweek to help transport emergency supplies, provide security and clear debris.

In the interim, however, residents have perished as distraught relatives awaited rescue teams and equipment that didn’t arrive in time. Homeless people still camp on the streets, wondering why aid is taking so long. “They say there’s help, but it doesn’t arrive,” said Henock Volmidor, an unemployed hotel worker, at a makeshift refugee camp on Monday.

Read the whole thing.