The one thing we got really, really right when we started this whole democracy thing here..... An election process than more or less works.

You could have a 4 candidate election and sure in an FPV system the one with 40% of the votes would win, but the system we use acknowledges the fact that 60% of the electorate voted *against* that person - they don't want him in Power. So it asks them, hey, if you can't have your candidate, who would you prefer instead.....

And that might not be the one with 40% of the first preference votes.....

It avoids so many of the adverse incentives of first past the post voting. 2 candidates can't really split the vote, 3rd party or compromise candidates have more of a chance of being deemed 'tolereable' by the electorate when faced with two diametrically opposed alternatives.

Theoretically the system outputs the candidates the majority of the electorate would at least tolerate in government, and the whole system rumbles on.

It also makes it simple to vote against the candidates you *hate*. Just mark everyone else in order of preference, and leave the Sinn Fein box empty and then they will 'never' get your vote.

It'd be curious under an STV type system to see how the US election would turn out.
I'm curious to see how different the result would be using an Irish-style Single transfereable vote system, rather than first past the post.....

Would anybody care to indulge my curiosity? Maybe we don't have enough people to do it, but it'd be interesting to try.

So, let's write up a balllot card

[ ] Clinton, Hilllary
[ ] Trump, Donald
[ ] Bush, Jeb
[ ] Huckabee, Mike
[ ] Sanders, Bernie,
[ ] Stein, Jilll
[ ] Johnson, Gary
[ ] McMullin, Evan
[ ] O'Death, Sweet Meteor

We're making a few assumptions here. For one thing that defeated candidates in the primaries didn't drop out, but clung on. Either as independants, or to try and nail a win for at least one party candidate on transfers. I picked most of the names out on wikipedia so I've no idea who the fuck most of them are.

Mark your card with a number beside the name of the candidate you most prefer, then on down in the order of decending preference. The finished product might look something like this, for example

[ 3 ] Clinton, Hilllary
[ ] Trump, Donald
[ 4 ] Bush, Jeb
[ 5 ] Huckabee, Mike
[ 2 ] Sanders, Bernie,
[ 1 ] Stein, Jilll
[ 6 ] Johnson, Gary
[ 7 ] McMullin, Evan
[ 8 ] O'Death, Sweet Meteor

We would love a Jill Stein presidency (Even though we know it'll never happen), be more or less OK with a Sanders presidency, tolerate a Clinton presidency, find the idea of a three-generation political dynasty amusing, have heard Huckabee's name without major scandle attached to it, Would like to make Johnson jokes, have no idea who McMulin is we just that we think Trump is worse. We never want Trump to win, so we leave his box blank.

That's basically how it goes. You don't really have to mark the card the whole way down, but it helps the system a great deal if you do. Or if you want to vote none-of-the above, leave the ballot blank. It's still a legal vote.

Either post below. Or if you'd like your ballot to be secret, PM it to me.

Come November, I'll count according to Irish presidential election rules and see which ticket would've won. And post the secret ballots anonymised, to see 'how' the count worked through.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

So, Peggy and I finally got to watch this on Hulu tonight.  And sadly, we were underwhelmed.  Great production values, but... about the best way Peg and I can describe it is, low energy.  It just felt like everyone was on tranquilizers.
So, kind of as an antidote, here's an old fic of mine, trotted back out as an antidote, a tribute, and sign of the season.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I present once again...
A Wild and Untamed Thing...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/100-y ... -1.3811500]Engineers stumble on WWI German submarine sunk by 'sea monster'

This sounds sufficiently interesting to add to a Weird War One game or story:

Quote:The submarine was caught by the British HMS Coreopsis on April 30, 1918, as it was floating on the surface during the day. The German crew surrendered without resistance.

When questioned about why his submarine was floating on the surface, the ship's Captain Krech told a wild tale.

He said the sub was recharging its batteries on the surface of the water at night when a "strange beast" rose from the water and attacked them.

Krech described a beast with "large eyes, set in a horny sort of skull … with teeth that could be seen glistening in the moonlight."

He said every one of his crew began firing at the beast until it dropped back into the sea. But Krech said the sub was so damaged in its battle with the "monster" that it could no longer submerge.

Quote:[Historian Innes McCartney] has a different theory of what may have happened, and it doesn't involve sea monsters.

"The submarine was caught on the surface at night recharging its batteries," he said. "It saw the patrol ship coming, it attempted to do a crash dive to get away and the young officer whose job it was to shut the hatch at the top didn't stop it properly, and when the submarine was underwater it began rapidly flooding from above so they had no option but to just blow all the compressed air they had, bring the submarine to the surface, at which point all they could do was surrender."

I'm planning to put this on ATT as soon as it's back up, but I felt like bouncing it off any GuP watchers here anyway:

Quote:The tank battles are actually all in virtual reality.  This is why no one gets broken bones or worse when their tanks are flipped upside down and set on fire.  The girls Miho rescued from drowning in her character-defining moment were in no real danger at all.  This makes her mother — and Erika — not quite as dickish as they'd seemed.

On the other hand, as Maho pointed out, Miho's determination not to yield her subordinates even to simulated death breeds an esprit de corps and devotion to their leader that lets a pack of newbies defeat veteran players and overwhelming odds ... so this hypothesis does NOT mean Miho's the idiot Shiho and Erika call her.  Rather, she's deliberately playing at a higher level of difficulty than they are.  And beating the odds anyway.

Virtual reality also mitigates the apparent wastefulness of the whole program.  That shopkeeper wasn't talking about remodeling with insurance money after his shop was wrecked, but remodeling with profits from people visiting the shop because it featured so prominently in the broadcast.  Free advertising, yay!  And those impossibly large ships?  Hey, the computer simulates those, too.  Everything's really all taking place on land at Oarai.

The simulation is so good that people, especially young people, often lose track of the fact that this isn't the real world.  That's why Mako, flaking out, thought she had to swim to get to her ailing grandmother, rather than simply logging out of the simulation and catching a taxi. 

...this election season, you're friendly neighbourhood Canadians on the Net provide this:

Sorry to bring this up so late, Bob, but you noted in the Concordance that in November 2015 you revised the Chapter 1 scene in which Doug meets Charlie's family plus Ron's friends, to reflect that Charlie met Hermione and Harry the year before.  Except that I was rereading that scene just this morning, and....

Quote:"And ... I have no idea who you two are."

"Oh, dear, I'm sorry." Mrs. Weasley suddenly turned to them and, taking their hands, drew them into the mob. "Charlie, these are Ron's friends..."

Hermione stepped down off the staircase and flashed a smile at the pair. "Hermione Granger. I watch over these two and make sure they do their homework on time."

"Woman's a bloody taskmaster, too," Ron muttered from somewhere in the center of the group, to his other siblings' laughter.

She ignored that and finished, "It's good to see you again, Charlie."

He returned the smile. "You, too, Hermione." Charlie's gaze tracked over to Harry and he nodded with a lopsided grin. "And this," he said, turning back to Doug, "is the famous Harry."

So as I was driving back home from work my iPod cues the Star Trek: Voyager theme followed by the Ulysses 31 theme.

So it occurs to me if Voyager would actually work better if it was written following the template of The Odyssey as they did on Ulysses 31.

Any thoughts?

So these past few weeks I found this video channel and it's basically a video blog about a couple living in Japan. What they like, what they miss, and slice of life videos showing some of their daily lives. I find it fun and informative, so without further ado:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TexaninTokyo

Here's a few Japanese-style recipes - beef kushiyaki, chicken karaage, and sriracha jalapeño salmon sushi rolls.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ku ... -1.3799948

Did you know that Jackson Pollock won an award for his apple pie recipe?
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as- ... -1.3076520
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37643621]Bob Dylan has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature

(EDIT because I came up with a better thread title)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012