"I'd rather have a few weeks of checking to make sure everythings fair, rather than an instant biased result with no appeal."
In Australia, with hand-counted ballots (closely observed the whole time by scrutineers of all parties), we have the results by the same evening. Or the next day if it is very, very close. And we have preferential voting to contend with (i.e. we must not only count the primary vote, but also measure the effect of the other preferences, where relevant). In many electorates, we have a result within a few hours. Almost always one of the political leaders can declare victory (and they always wait for the loser to concede).
So manual counting *can* be fair and efficient. Our only concern would be the possibility of "double voting" and "dead people voting" - i.e. the lack of identity checks on voters when they turn up at a polling booth.
And voting in Australia is compulsory, so we cope with a manual count even though it covers about 95% of the eligible voters.
If your government tells you they cannot afford it, I'd say they are not trying hard enough.
"Unfortuately, changing these fairly fundamental structural things about the American electoral and legislative systems would require action by exactly the set of people who have figured out how to profit from the current broken systems. So we're deadlocked."
Like the grandparent said: "Why aren't you Americans revolting over things like this?" You said that the politicians won't change the system. The grandparent asked: why aren't YOU and your fellow citizens changing it? A democracy is government "by the people, for the people", not "by the politicians, for the politicians". Or was Lincoln just spinning PR?
230 years ago your forefathers fought for the right to be free. Now it is not worth turning off the TV or game device to defend? If the system is deadlocked, vote for radical candidates. That is a start. Then start telling others why you are doing that. Tell them how deep the corruption goes, and how far the nation has strayed from its founding vision. Tell them that current political funding is *wholesale bribery*, corrupting the national fabric to the core. Tell them your three points - they are good (we have preferential voting in our country, so we don't have the 'plurality voting' problem you have). Tell them that only they can fix the problem, because they (the people) ARE the government (remember "government... by the people"?).
If you just say "the system is deadlocked", it certainly won't get fixed. But it got the way it is by neglect over many years, so it will take more than just the next election to put it right. The American (and Australian, and European...) people have a lot of democracy-building work to catch up in their own backyards. Don't expect the corporations to do it for you - they aren't democratic. Not even in principle. Which means that the media won't help you either. They are trying to persuade you, and even to lull you, not listen to you.
The US began with a revolution. Today's Americans look about as revolutionary as Elmer Fudd. But you don't have to be.
Ah, the fallacy of the inductivist Christmas turkey.
Jan 1: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow. Jan 2: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow.... Jun 1: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow. Jun 2: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow.
Dec 1: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow. Dec 2: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow.
Dec 23: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow. Dec 24: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow. Dec 25: [axed]
Some things just sneak up on you. Tomorrow isn't always like today. Otherwise you'd live forever (and you won't).
Nup. The Linux distros are just waiting so that they can put Duke Nukem Forever on the desktop as one of the bundled games.
They could have have rolled out the desktop years ago, but it would have been crippled without DNF.
I mean, how many years has it been now, since it was first declared "this is the year of the Linux desktop"? And each year, hopes are dashed because DNF isn't ready.
Microsoft are so lucky. The minute DNF is ready... their goose is cooked.
So if I have a perpetual *lack* of energy, and the universe is tending toward equilibrium, then somewhere out there there has to be a perpetual store of energy. Otherwise, what's going to neutralise my energy void?
See? It's all perfectly logical.
Inifinite laziness is the proof that an infinite supply of energy exists. We just gotta keep looking for it (well, you do, I'm too tired).
(Wait a moment... if people *keep* looking for the infinite supply of energy, won't they use it all up?)
"People who read Slashdot, and other people who've taken the time to think this through..."
Wow. Never have I heard a bunch of nerds who spend all their time coding, playing online games, eating pizza, and downloading porn/mp3s/movies, being described as "people who've taken the time to think this through".
Most of us won't even RTFM, let alone think about issues.
Overreact, maybe. "Think things through" - wow. That's a first.
I travelled around the world in April. The US was the only country I passed through (and I was only transiting through - I never went outside the airports) that wanted to photograph and fingerprint me, and my wife and *children*. And I am an Australian of British ancestry - a more WASP-ish Australian family you could not find. Not a group of people given to terrorist attacks on America.
Many of the countries I visited didn't even look at my passport (*cough* *cough* Europe) - I just drove straight over the borders quite legally and kept going (rather like an American crossing state borders). We even flew in and out of a one-party police state that treated us better as transit passengers than the Americans did. And as for New Zealand, which we visited in January 2006, they practically invited us to stay, get a house, a job and live there - no forms, applications or visas required. We had an automatic right to stay as long as we liked, and even settle there. Most hospitable and friendly and welcoming.
America is the only place I have visited that treated me like a person being charged with an offence (that is what I would have to do in Australia to be fingerprinted).
So about these other countries that you reckon behave like America: they are obviously not Europe or the UK or Australia, are they? China? North Korea? Iran? Is that who you are emulating?
This is the fundamental problem of capitalism: how is democracy possible in the face of huge, rich, powerful corporations that can by-pass any control of the government by the people?
The real story here is the one-on-one battle between the German raider Kormoran and the much more powerful Australian cruiser Sydney, which resulted in the Sydney being lost with no survivors, and the Kormoran being so badly damaged that it had to be scuttled, but with most crew surviving. Many questions, and some conspiracy theories, have arisen as to why the Sydney could have been so comprehensively destroyed by an inferior opponent. Suggestions put forward include the idea that a Japanese submarine was involved - a scandal as Japan and Australia were not yet at war (this was before Pearl Harbour).
Finding the remains of the Sydney might help piece together its final hours, and explain why it vanished with over 600 men on board. According to German survivors of the battle, the badly-damaged Sydney had sailed away from the sinking Kormoran, with only one of its four gun turrets working and with fires raging on board. It sailed off over the horizon with periodic outbursts of flames, and was never seen again. Why did no crew abandon the mortally wounded ship? The only confirmed remains of the Sydney was an empty bullet-ridden life-raft found in the ocean. A life-raft with a dead body was later found on an island some distance from the battle - it may also have been from the Sydney, but this cannot be confirmed.
Given the controversy around the battle, perhaps it is not surprising that further controversial claims should appear, alleging that the ship's remains have been found. No one seems too impressed by these latest claims, however.
Yeah, nobody had assassinated a President before, but sovereign rulers had been the target of people with grievances before.
In fact, on Jan 30, 1835 a would-be assassin fired two pistols at President Andrew Jackson from close range. Jackson then actually beat the assailant with his walking stick, he was that close to the action. Fortunately, the pistols had misfired, else Jackson would have been the first US President to be be assassinated, not Lincoln.
So Lincoln was not the first serious attempt at assassination, just the first successful assassination.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry, I meant to say "can declare victory *on the evening* of election day."
"I'd rather have a few weeks of checking to make sure everythings fair, rather than an instant biased result with no appeal."
In Australia, with hand-counted ballots (closely observed the whole time by scrutineers of all parties), we have the results by the same evening. Or the next day if it is very, very close. And we have preferential voting to contend with (i.e. we must not only count the primary vote, but also measure the effect of the other preferences, where relevant). In many electorates, we have a result within a few hours. Almost always one of the political leaders can declare victory (and they always wait for the loser to concede).
So manual counting *can* be fair and efficient. Our only concern would be the possibility of "double voting" and "dead people voting" - i.e. the lack of identity checks on voters when they turn up at a polling booth.
And voting in Australia is compulsory, so we cope with a manual count even though it covers about 95% of the eligible voters.
If your government tells you they cannot afford it, I'd say they are not trying hard enough.
Two interesting quotes:
...
"BOOST makes decent programmers cry."
- And as we all know: goatse.cx makes decent programmer's cry. Therefore, Boost *may* be like goatse.cx
"BOOST is full of butt-ugly hacks. Check out the, uh [...] Eeeeeew!!!"
- Yep, Boost is definitely like goatse.cx
Wow! If you split it into separate files, and compile them in the right order, it actually works!
Or er, so a friend told me.
Why not everyone pool their copyrights in a single co-operative?
... Something or other.........
We could call it the Free Soft...ware
Or we could just join the existing one.
"Unfortuately, changing these fairly fundamental structural things about the American electoral and legislative systems would require action by exactly the set of people who have figured out how to profit from the current broken systems. So we're deadlocked."
... by the people"?).
Like the grandparent said: "Why aren't you Americans revolting over things like this?" You said that the politicians won't change the system. The grandparent asked: why aren't YOU and your fellow citizens changing it? A democracy is government "by the people, for the people", not "by the politicians, for the politicians". Or was Lincoln just spinning PR?
230 years ago your forefathers fought for the right to be free. Now it is not worth turning off the TV or game device to defend? If the system is deadlocked, vote for radical candidates. That is a start. Then start telling others why you are doing that. Tell them how deep the corruption goes, and how far the nation has strayed from its founding vision. Tell them that current political funding is *wholesale bribery*, corrupting the national fabric to the core. Tell them your three points - they are good (we have preferential voting in our country, so we don't have the 'plurality voting' problem you have). Tell them that only they can fix the problem, because they (the people) ARE the government (remember "government
If you just say "the system is deadlocked", it certainly won't get fixed. But it got the way it is by neglect over many years, so it will take more than just the next election to put it right. The American (and Australian, and European...) people have a lot of democracy-building work to catch up in their own backyards. Don't expect the corporations to do it for you - they aren't democratic. Not even in principle. Which means that the media won't help you either. They are trying to persuade you, and even to lull you, not listen to you.
The US began with a revolution. Today's Americans look about as revolutionary as Elmer Fudd. But you don't have to be.
"These are the methods of a tin pot dictator, not the leader of a great and worthy nation."
Or the self-obsessed: "Never mind the planet! What does it say about ME?"
I won't sink to the iPhone either.
Ah, the fallacy of the inductivist Christmas turkey.
...
Jan 1: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow.
Jan 2: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow.
Jun 1: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow.
Jun 2: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow.
Dec 1: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow.
Dec 2: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow.
Dec 23: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow.
Dec 24: did I get axed today for Christmas lunch? Nup. Probably not tomorrow.
Dec 25: [axed]
Some things just sneak up on you. Tomorrow isn't always like today. Otherwise you'd live forever (and you won't).
Nup. The Linux distros are just waiting so that they can put Duke Nukem Forever on the desktop as one of the bundled games.
... their goose is cooked.
They could have have rolled out the desktop years ago, but it would have been crippled without DNF.
I mean, how many years has it been now, since it was first declared "this is the year of the Linux desktop"? And each year, hopes are dashed because DNF isn't ready.
Microsoft are so lucky. The minute DNF is ready
So if I have a perpetual *lack* of energy, and the universe is tending toward equilibrium, then somewhere out there there has to be a perpetual store of energy. Otherwise, what's going to neutralise my energy void?
... if people *keep* looking for the infinite supply of energy, won't they use it all up?)
See? It's all perfectly logical.
Inifinite laziness is the proof that an infinite supply of energy exists. We just gotta keep looking for it (well, you do, I'm too tired).
(Wait a moment
So when we meet dumb people, we shouldn't tell them to "grow a brain", we should just waft our pheromones at them.
Corollary: if the world had more dominant males to waft about their pheromones, the world would be a smarter place.
Puts one in the eye for feminism, though.
"A similar wave can be created by the electrons on a metal surface when they are disturbed, for instance, by light."
I get disturbed by light too - like when I am asleep and someone turns on the light.
But I don't usually wave, I am more likely to punch.
Oh, it's obvious!
They have to let competitors in, every now and then, just so that they can take over the competitor's market.
"People who read Slashdot, and other people who've taken the time to think this through..."
Wow. Never have I heard a bunch of nerds who spend all their time coding, playing online games, eating pizza, and downloading porn/mp3s/movies, being described as "people who've taken the time to think this through".
Most of us won't even RTFM, let alone think about issues.
Overreact, maybe. "Think things through" - wow. That's a first.
Naaah, they just don't wash their hands after they go to the toilet (that's "bathroom" for you squeamish Americans).
I certainly wouldn't want them coming into my court, if I were a judge. Filthy unwashed hands.
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!
BBC's new slogan... "Where does one want to go today?"
I travelled around the world in April. The US was the only country I passed through (and I was only transiting through - I never went outside the airports) that wanted to photograph and fingerprint me, and my wife and *children*. And I am an Australian of British ancestry - a more WASP-ish Australian family you could not find. Not a group of people given to terrorist attacks on America.
Many of the countries I visited didn't even look at my passport (*cough* *cough* Europe) - I just drove straight over the borders quite legally and kept going (rather like an American crossing state borders). We even flew in and out of a one-party police state that treated us better as transit passengers than the Americans did. And as for New Zealand, which we visited in January 2006, they practically invited us to stay, get a house, a job and live there - no forms, applications or visas required. We had an automatic right to stay as long as we liked, and even settle there. Most hospitable and friendly and welcoming.
America is the only place I have visited that treated me like a person being charged with an offence (that is what I would have to do in Australia to be fingerprinted).
So about these other countries that you reckon behave like America: they are obviously not Europe or the UK or Australia, are they? China? North Korea? Iran? Is that who you are emulating?
This is the fundamental problem of capitalism: how is democracy possible in the face of huge, rich, powerful corporations that can by-pass any control of the government by the people?
The real story here is the one-on-one battle between the German raider Kormoran and the much more powerful Australian cruiser Sydney, which resulted in the Sydney being lost with no survivors, and the Kormoran being so badly damaged that it had to be scuttled, but with most crew surviving. Many questions, and some conspiracy theories, have arisen as to why the Sydney could have been so comprehensively destroyed by an inferior opponent. Suggestions put forward include the idea that a Japanese submarine was involved - a scandal as Japan and Australia were not yet at war (this was before Pearl Harbour).
Finding the remains of the Sydney might help piece together its final hours, and explain why it vanished with over 600 men on board. According to German survivors of the battle, the badly-damaged Sydney had sailed away from the sinking Kormoran, with only one of its four gun turrets working and with fires raging on board. It sailed off over the horizon with periodic outbursts of flames, and was never seen again. Why did no crew abandon the mortally wounded ship? The only confirmed remains of the Sydney was an empty bullet-ridden life-raft found in the ocean. A life-raft with a dead body was later found on an island some distance from the battle - it may also have been from the Sydney, but this cannot be confirmed.
Given the controversy around the battle, perhaps it is not surprising that further controversial claims should appear, alleging that the ship's remains have been found. No one seems too impressed by these latest claims, however.
But I don't believe in gravity. I believe in levity.
You can have infra-red devices on your computer, right?
Well, now you can cook with them. Instant nachos and pizza. See? You don't have to go off line to make it.
Sheesh! Doesn't anyone here think?
Mmmmmmm, grilled Firefox.
The new American two-party system in Congress: Microsoft fanboys versus *nix fanboys.
"Linux r00lz!" "No, Windows r0x"
Congressional debate will be raised to new intellectual heights.
We welcome out new Slashdot Party overlords....
Yeah, nobody had assassinated a President before, but sovereign rulers had been the target of people with grievances before.
In fact, on Jan 30, 1835 a would-be assassin fired two pistols at President Andrew Jackson from close range. Jackson then actually beat the assailant with his walking stick, he was that close to the action. Fortunately, the pistols had misfired, else Jackson would have been the first US President to be be assassinated, not Lincoln.
So Lincoln was not the first serious attempt at assassination, just the first successful assassination.
A thumbnail doesn't give you the full detail of a full-sized image. Try to scale it up and you get pixellated garbage.
Been trying that with nude thumbnails, have you?