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It's not contrived. That 33% split is exactly where things would head in an IRV system.

Well, I live in a country that uses IRV for every State and Federal election (Australia), and I can tell you it's just not like that. The two major parties attract around 40% of the primary vote each and the rest is split between many much smaller parties.

I'm not saying IRV is the best system ever invented. But I object to how people point to small imperfections in IRV as reasons to stick with a system that is far inferior to it.

We know the government doesn't track ATM transactions, so you're safe.

Lots of EU countries have PR in various forms. A few examples:

The Netherlands has PR with the whole country being one electorate (it's a small place).

Germany has single member electorates and then top-up members from national lists to make the proportions work out. This has the slightly odd result that you don't know in advance exactly how big the Bundestag will be.

Sweden has districts with about 7 members elected by PR and then has top-up members.

Australia (which is obviously not EU) has PR by state for the Senate. In Australia, each state gets 12 senators and half are elected every three years. Each state elects its 6 senators by a form of PR. (It's actually a form of single transferable vote to be precise). Since Australia had a federal election on Saturday, there's a lot of information about the Senate count (which is still ongoing) on the ABC web site.

Australia just had an election, and, whilst counting is still ongoing, here are the resultss:

election results

Notice how the National party polls 5% and is represented by 12 members of parliment, however, the Green party polls 7% and gets no members.

That's because the electorates are geographical, and the National party has a geographical constituency (the country).

But I think it's unfair that 7% of voters aren't represented at all! This is not something that Condorcet voting would fix, because it has to do with the granularity of the electorates.

Australian Senate (voting) uses a different system which ensures that each party is represented by approx. the % of votes they get. They can only do this by breaking every criterion on the page you linked... but it's fairer IMHO

Sheesh, what is up with Australia?

It is called a "Conservative Government". The ratings system for games is outdated, based on the assumption that games are for kids (hence the highest classification is 15+), but there is no way that a Conservative Government would fix this, because they would be worried about newspaper headlines like "Government allows kids to play porno games". They have also done everything they can to stack the Office of Film and Literature Classification (which also rates games) with conservative cronies.

The Government has also realized that since computer games and the Internet are seen as "scary new-fangled technology" by many older and more technophobic Australians, that they can use them as a ploy to gain support. So, they are constantly announcing plans to "keep the kids safe from the evils of the Internet and computer games". This is definately a vote-winner, because given that Australia's population is skewed towards the older demographic, there will be a lot more people pleased by this policy than upset. Censorship is also an effective bargaining chip when trying to get ultra-conservtive independent politicians to help pass legislation.

The contrast comes in TV and radio. Any attempts to censor them would be met by outrage, because they are not a niche market like computer games. So, while the Government is trying to save us all from being morally corrupted by computers, prime-time TV and radio regularly feature profanity. Australia's TV censorship is self-regulated by the industry, so you will regularly hear "fuck" and "shit" on prime-time free-to-air TV chat shows, and all day on certain radio stations. Music is played uncensored on the Government-funded Triple J youth radio network, and radio hosts will regularly swear their heads off and frankly discuss sexual matters. The partly Government-funded SBS free-to-air TV network regularly features shows that could only be described as "European soft-core porn".

So, it is not that we are a country of prudes or anything like that, it is simply the case that computer games and the Internet have gained in popularity, and hence caught the eyes of regulators and lawmakers, while we have been suffering under a conservative Govenment.

Hopefully they will be voted out in tomorrow's elections, but that seems unlikely based on present polling.

Two published studies (one by me, in fact) have shown that it is not very plausible that the bubonic plague caused enough natural selection to have produced the modern day frequencies of the Delta 32 mutation in Europe.

I found this article online that says that the black death may not have been caused by the bubonic plague, but rather some other disease. Could that have something to do with it? Heres a quote...

The descriptions given by Boccaccio and others didn't seem to fit with what we know about bubonic plague. That was the view of two British researchers, Christopher Duncan and Susan Scott from the University of Liverpool, who in 2001 published a book called Biology of Plagues: Evidence from Historical Populations. In it they pointed out several things that didn't make sense if indeed, the Black Death was caused by bubonic plague.
...
There had to be some other means of transmisson than the rat/flea/human pathway. It made much more sense if transmission was from person to person - by an airborne particle - probably a virus, argue Duncan and Scott.

Medieval descriptions of the Black Death - where dark spots appear in the skin - sound more like viral hemorrhagic fever, similar to modern day Ebola, than bubonic plague, they say.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is government funded. It has specific rules about non-partisan bias, especially during election campaigns (like right now). Although its very position (non-commercial, etc...) tends to give it a slight bias towards the left, which the current right-wing coalition government has been whinging about on occasion. The youth-targeted Triple J radio regularly pays out commercial radio too.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is government funded. It has specific rules about non-partisan bias, especially during election campaigns (like right now). Although its very position (non-commercial, etc...) tends to give it a slight bias towards the left, which the current right-wing coalition government has been whinging about on occasion. The youth-targeted Triple J radio regularly pays out commercial radio too.

If they had that many validated email addresses - they'd be the king of spam !!.

Nonsense!!!!

There's Only one King of spam in Australia.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Welcome to the program.

Many Australians have been voicing their concern about this country's front-line role in the campaign to attack Iraq, but so far the Howard Government has stood firm.

So how will it deal with another Australian who's reportedly declared Government policy against Iraq is dumb and not worth the risk?

Well, not so easily, when that opinion comes from a senior analyst in the Office of National Assessment, Andrew Wilkie, and pinned to that is his resignation.

The Office of National Assessment gathers and interprets an enormous flow of global intelligence material and briefs the PM accordingly.

Andrew Wilkie is a Duntroon graduate, a former soldier, a lieutenant colonel and has dropped a bombshell in the national capital tonight with a stinging criticism of the Howard Government's policy on Iraq.

He joins me now from Canberra.

Andrew Wilkie, is it accurate to describe you as a senior analyst with the Office of National Assessment?

ANDREW WILKIE, FORMER ANALYST, OFFICE OF NATIONAL ASSESSMENTS: Yes, Kerry.

KERRY O'BRIEN: And you were originally seconded to work there from the army back in '99.

ANDREW WILKIE: That's right, '99 and 2000 I was seconded there as a strategic analyst in the strategic analysis branch.

KERRY O'BRIEN: And the Office of National Assessments more recently, have you been privy to top level intelligence on areas like terrorism issues and Afghanistan and Iraq?

ANDREW WILKIE: Over the last 15 months or so I've been working global terrorism and transnational issues.

Because I'm one of the very small number of ex-military people in the office, I keep across potential military problems and am called in to work in the national intelligence watch office when those crises blow up.

Hence I've worked on Afghanistan, Kosovo and I was on stand-by to work on Iraq.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Why have you resigned?

ANDREW WILKIE: Kerry, war must obviously be justified and it must obviously be the option of last resort.

I'm not satisfied that in this case it is either justified or it's been viewed as the option of last resort.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Was there a particular moment that pushed you over the edge on this decision, I mean it is a big decision.

You've walked away on a career.

ANDREW WILKIE: It's the biggest decision I think I've ever made in my life.

Frankly I don't know what tomorrow will bring for me.

Was there a particular point in time?

No it's been accumulating over many, many weeks, if not months.

Although there have been some particular incidents which stick in my mind as incidents which annoyed me very much at the time.

For example, when Colin Powell presented evidence to the Security Council some weeks ago now about links between Al Qaeda and Iraq and as far as I'm aware there was no hard evidence and there is still no hard evidence that there is any active cooperation between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

KERRY O'BRIEN: But are you satisfied that you're really in a position to know that, to know that in the face of Colin Powell and all the credibility that he might muster?

ANDREW WILKIE: Yes, we are obviously privy to a substantial flow of intelligence, of hard intelligence from the US.

We haven't seen anything to prove that there is a link between the two organisations.

And, in fact, if you just approach it from first principles, there's a lot of good reasons why there wouldn't be a link.

Unless, of course, Saddam Hussein is pushed into establishing a relationship with Al Qaeda and that's one of the things that I worry about, if there is an invasion of Iraq that that will be just one of the sorts of forces that could push him towards a closer relationship with Al Qaeda.

KERRY O'BRIEN: You wrote an assessment last September on the hu

WE WERE ATTACKED ON 9/11.

"Thank you England and Poland and the other nations in our coalition. Together, we will root out and wipe out terrorism anywhere, anytime, in any country that threatens us."

WE WERE ATTACKED ON 9/11.

"Thank you England and Poland and the other nations in our coalition. Together, we will root out and wipe out terrorism anywhere, anytime, in any country that threatens us."

The transcript is here

Now please stop reading this left-wing propaganda, and resume your consumption of FOXNEWS. Support our troops!!!

LIZ JACKSON: Two weeks after Cheney's speech, the Bush administration leaked the story of the aluminium tubes to the New York Times. It was front-page news. Anonymous officials were quoted saying there was new information that Iraq had embarked on a worldwide hunt for material to make an atomic bomb, and that the specifications of the aluminium tubes had persuaded American intelligence experts that the tubes were for Iraq's nuclear program. Administration officials warned, "The first sign of a 'smoking gun'...may be a mushroom cloud." There was no mention of any debate or dissension about the tubes at all.

The transcript is here

Now please stop reading this left-wing propaganda, and resume your consumption of FOXNEWS. Support our troops!!!

LIZ JACKSON: Two weeks after Cheney's speech, the Bush administration leaked the story of the aluminium tubes to the New York Times. It was front-page news. Anonymous officials were quoted saying there was new information that Iraq had embarked on a worldwide hunt for material to make an atomic bomb, and that the specifications of the aluminium tubes had persuaded American intelligence experts that the tubes were for Iraq's nuclear program. Administration officials warned, "The first sign of a 'smoking gun'...may be a mushroom cloud." There was no mention of any debate or dissension about the tubes at all.

Besides, the USA's CO2 is a drop in the bucket compared to Iceland's volcanos.

... and of course the output of Iceland has been steadily improving over the last couple of centuries. Small wonder they are the first to completly switch over to a hydrogen econmy. Poor bastards.

Seriously, have you wasted more than a split second on this BS comparison before posting? If your answere is 'yes' I think you are in serious denial.

First Ever South Atlantic Hurricane Hits Brazil. (March of 2004)

South American Glaciers Melting Faster, Changing Sea Level.

Alaskan Glaciers Melting Faster.

desertification in China.

desertification in Africa.

Heck, even the rest of the solar system is acting funny. Remember the. . .

Blue Band on Jupiter this past March of 2004?

and

the Huge X-class solar flares of last year?

Interestingly, the evidence of past hurricanes categorized by decade suggests that there have been big hurricanes to make US landfall before. Indeed, the worst decade, from 1950-1959 saw a total of nine storms between category 3 and 4, (though none of category 5) during that ten year period. Sure. But we've just had four in just one summer. Nobody can say that this is par for any course.

Now, I am not claiming that this has anything to do with global warming. But anybody who tells me that everything is normal probably swore up and down that The Phantom Menace was a good film for a whole year after it came out.

-FL

Indeed. In fact, when I saw this headline, I went looking for another story I saw just a few days ago that says that this may be part of a normal cycle of increasing and decreasing cyclone counts and intensities. It doesn't rule out global warming effects, but it does present an alternate theory.

I have seen some other alternate theories to cover possible issues with global warming. Increases in geothermal activity under Greenland, for example, causing increased movement of the glaciers there. There's been the suggestion that increased energy output by the sun (a fraction of a percent, but at the level of the sun's output, that adds up pretty quickly) may be more at fault than man-made atmospheric releases. I don't mind research into man-made effects -- I'm all for getting off of oil dependency, and tech innovations are Very Good Things(TM) in general -- but alternate ideas do need to be suggested, considered, and explored.

Please provide references to the connection between the Ozone layer and volcanoes. Here are some to the contrary:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRe publish_496920.htm

http://www.sustainer.org/dhm_archive/search.php?di splay_article=vn504ozoneed

stFuck the children.
So have the cops come around to seize your computer yet?

Hey, where's my fridge magnet? I thought Alston had quit, why do we have to have more internet blocking blah blah.

I mean seriously, if the set this thing up, how are we going to catch those those that are actually nonces (I've been watching the Bill)? And why should Christians decide what is and isn't appropriate for a country where less than half the population is christian. And in any case 39.2% are Catholic and 30.4% are Anglican (see nice graphs here). The churches are in Abbott's back pocket anyway.

Fundies like this dont really have much of a say in politics down here
Sure, they probably won't win a lot of seats, so it doesn't really matter. Unless there's a hung parliment (which let's face facts, it's so close it could be) then Family First could become a bit of a problem. Oh... they're only going for the senate... hmmm... they will get killed by the Democrats and Greens... I'm no longer worried... Aww... they've got a geek (sorta) running in Victoria. I might have to vote below the line...

Can't wait till the Jedi population increases (2001 0.37%). Then we can get goverment funded lightsaber grants.

I know this is noted above, but it is worth restating. Family First are in no way left wing. They are supporting Australia's conservative Government in the upcoming election, and directing their preferences against Australia's main left wing party (under Australia's preferential voting system).

They are socially conservative, being the political arm of one of Australia's largest evangelical groups, and have no real stance on economic issues. Their main aim is to move their evangelism into the political arena, and their political candidates are predominantly drawn from the Christian Right. The party generally agrees with the current conservative government, and they are vehemently opposed to the major left-wing parties in Australian politics (Labor and the Greens).

Luckily, although Australian nominally has a two-thirds Christian population, most people who describe themselves as Christian rarely go to church, and many don't really have any religious beliefs. The average "Christian" Australian only goes to Church for weddings, baptisms and funerals, but describes themself as "Christian" on the census, because they "were baptised that way". Many past Australian Prime Ministers have been atheist, agnostic or followed minor religions (e.g. Alfred Deakin was a "spiritualist"), and very few have professed strong religious convictions.

Politics in Australia have generally been a religion-free zone, apart from a few minor political parties, so the arrival of the cashed-up, conservative Family First party is a real worry. They are currently polling at anywhere from 2-5%, and mainly draw their support from members of Pentecostal chuches.

I really can't see how they could - in any way - be described as left-wing, and I thing the story poster was either: confused, uninformed, or trolling against left-wing Slashdotters. In any case, the story should be corrected. As it is, it implies that Family First have some connection with Labor, when they actually might cost them the election.

Or he could buy several thousand smoke detectors today

Like the radioactive boy scout ?

What if a person really wants to vote that way?
The important part is "A donkey vote is counted as a valid vote because it contains a number "1" and has numbered every square in sequential order." They have a little lottery in each electorate using balls in a bingo machine... very exciting.
But basically the last election:
1 ALP - "We don't believe in mandatory detention of illegal immigrants"
2 Liberal - "Lock 'em up for ages, send em home"
3 One Nation - racist party
4 Democrats - we love everyone
5 Greens - we love trees

Normally someone voting ALP will put the Libs last and vice versa.
Strangely donkey votes are going down (of course this is based on perception).

I think Australians (even uninformed ones) can usually find a party to side with. How many parties exist in the US? From the coverage we get, it seems like there are only 2.

There is a lot of protest voting... but usually only when it is clear the person being voted against will get in anyway (doesn't make any sense, but hey, that's politics). This occured in Victoria (my state) where we voted our Premier out, even though we didn't really know how the other bloke was. The other bloke one and everyone was very shocked.

...Al Sadr who institutes Sharia law and goes around executing people after holding secret trials...

Of course, back in the 90s, Allawi was setting off car bombs in Bhagdad. Those days. it was considered a *good thing* to set off car bombs in downtown Bhagdad. (Allawi was even caught on tape by the British media complaining that he had not been compensated properly by his overlords [MI5? CIA??] for his last bang.) Now the shoe is on the other foot re car bombs.

Allawi, Sadr,...they are all bird of the same feather. When Saddam bumped off Sadr (Sr.), that was a *really bad thing*. We of couse have the *best of intentions* in trying to blow up Sadr (Jr.)

Not so. From estimates I've seen, the Black Death killed more in Europe alone (during the 1347-1350 pandemic it was on the order of 25 million) than the 1918 Flu Pandemic did globally (roughly 22 million).

actually, i heard an interview with this guy the other day on newsradio's 'StarStuff', the episode of which can be found here: http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/star.htm
its probably best to hear it from the horses mouth, and perhaps it wont sound so much like a cry for money (although, i cant see what is wrong with a scientist trying to get funding (?)).

Well, call me crazy but that's not pro-life.

If you support Bush, you support what he's doing in Iraq. Which is, he is losing the illegal war, which was unjustified as they have conclusively reported that there was no WMD in Iraq.

LandLine reports that an Australian winery has developed wine that packs in twice the antioxidants that normal wines do. The winemaker's actually a biochemist, and he has added antioxidant-enriched coffee and other stuff to the range.

It is also thought that dark matter is at the centre of galaxies Could explain a lot of things, e.g. the expansion/contraction of the universe. Judging by the amount of "tangible" matter in the universe, there is no way to halt the expansion, and it will go on forever. However, if there is dark matter, it could hold enough gravity to halt expansion and force the big crunch. Lots of info on this sort of stuff here

So we watch 4,5,6, and think its about Luke. We watch 1,2,3, and realize that its about Vader. We watch 7,8,9 and maybe we will finally realize it's just about an old man who doesn't know when to let someone else take over.

It's about John Howard?!

What, exactly, is so offensive about that statement? Men and women have very different information processing abilities. Don't let yourself get so wrapped up in political correctness. As I've already said in an earlier post, read the part about drawing bicycles. Ignoring scientific fact in the name of political correctness is for politicians, not nerds :-)

Uhhhhgg, don't be so PC. We are wired differently. Read the part about drawing bicycles. The same applies here. :-)

...is there a chance that Americans are seeing this anywhere?

According to my TV guide it was pulled in 1996 due to sensitivities during that year's election. It's another side of W. people might want to pay attention to.

The homegrown Fundamentalist Christian and White Supremacist groups are just as big a terrorist threat (if not greater) than the foreign groups. There are hundreds of these groups in the US.

William Krar got caught with weapons of mass destruction in May this year - he had a stock pile of chemical weapons, brief case bombs, pipe bombs, remote control bombs, and half a million rounds of ammo. This barely rates a mention in the media, yet the "dirty bomber" merit weeks on the front pages. People get in a panic over a Syrian band catching a plane, and this makes the news.
William Krar got sentenced to 11 years in jail, while his accomplices got around 5 years.

There is an article on the Australian ABC here:
link

Hey, I like Ace of Base, and I'm a triple j & npr listener!

We don't get nova in canberra, but I've always been pretty impressed with triplej (http://abc.net.au/triplej/). It's public, so there aren't any ads and they play a pretty diverse selection of music. Which means they play some crap stuff too, but there's probably lees time spent playing crap than most stations spend on ads.

More inane chatter. Mile high was one place where you were safe for a while from all the i-have-got-to-talk-on-my-cell-phone people. Damn.

In my opinion, the most annoying people are those that use their phone on the train. I commute by train for two hours a day, and I used to relieve the tedium by listening to my portable radio (usually tuning into Radio National). Then, a few years ago mobile phones started to gain popularity. Unfortunately, they also interfere with radio reception, so if there was someone nearby on the train chatting on their phone, I could not listen to the radio at all. This was not a big problem, I would simply get up and sit somewhere else.

However, in the last year, mobile phones have become so ubquitous that at any one time, about a quarter of the people on the train are chatting on the phone. It is now nearly impossible to find somewhere on the train where I can get radio reception, and when I finally do, a phone rings nearby. I have almost given up listening to the radio on the train, because most of the time it is an exercise in futility.

I understand that mobile phones are convenient for many people, but they are certainly an inconvenience for me.

Sorry, but by the time the space program rolled around, most computer R&D funding was commercial. The Apollo computer was made from 5000 off-the-shelf integrated circuits and core memory.

I also submitted this story to /., with a comment that the PM's own email address is not nearly as available as many other sitting politicians.

I prefer to listen to satirical Howard quotes rather than the real ones. They make more sense.

"I'm very proud of the fact that my son has started a small business. He's in his 20s and I get a real buzz out of the fact that he's prepared to have a go in a small business, that's what the future of this country is all about."

So the future of Australia lies in f**ing up everyone else's life so one person can get ahead?

We can all pack up and go home now. Australian mateship is dead.

There you go. Naked women, oil within easy reach, what more could you ask? (-:

Actually, if you waited long enough, it would. Of course, it might be many many many times more than the universe's age before it happens. :) http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/gmis9844. htm

Taxpayer-funded plastic surgery.

Another story states that while adults in the tribe have difficulty learning to count, the children do not.

Still waiting for the Mars Rover to find evidence of water on the face of Mars Volta

Most of the time, corporations behave "morally" because that's the best long-term strategy (see tit-for-tat). If you have to deal with the same actors repeatedly, or if the actors can share information about you, your reputation as a fair dealer becomes more valuable than the profit you make off one raw deal.

Where morals come into play is when tit-for-tat doesn't apply - one of the dealers is much bigger than the other, or has an opportunity to crush the other without repercussions. Microsoft (to pick a random example) screws its partners primarily because it can.

what they're doing is a perfectly viable form of non-violent direct action. they're using technology to create the world they want rather than asking for it. i think they're doing a great thing.

would you say that interrupting the workings of the Nazi party is a bad thing? how about interrupting the working of some unnamed party who rounds up individuals off the street, without trial, and holds them in jail for years without access to lawyers, torturing them all the while?

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&ie=as cii&q=guantanamo+&btnG=Search+News

should we protect the speech of mass murderers who indiscriminately kill innocent people?

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2003/s821954.htm
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?item ID=5308&sectionID=15
http://iraqbodycount.net/

this is the digital equivalent of blocking a street to interrupt the convention. they're just holding people responsible for their actions. believe me, most of the world is vey much in support of trying to stop our government right now.

lastly, should we try to physically stop a government which is even willing to jail people for LINKING to contraband information?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=sher man+austin&btnG=Google+Search

Or "Freddy the Crab" in the case of Australian swimmer Liesel Jones

Wow, it is bollocks to me (Free To Air TV here equals Free To Air and nothing more, nothing less). Paying people to run around in vans all day to see if someone hasn't paid up?

Brits better start rolling out super fast wireless networks with MythTV boxes with several TV tuners (or don't tell me they can detect multiple oscillators too?) to ditch such crap.

Down under, the BBC equivalent is funded from taxpayer government budget dosh, and revenue from selling merchandise. And half the stuff on the ABC TV is BBC content.... Ok ok, we don't have as much population and costs for public servicesm but shelling out money for TV? what the..

Why Socialism? - An essay by Albert Einstein

The Political Economy of Intellectual Property - Michael Perelman