Unfinished sympathy.

[reddragdiva]

• David Nutt spanks glib Sky News interviewer. Pwnage.

• When Tories start even sidling up to "family values," the stockings, suspenders, binbag and tangerine are close behind.

• World's tallest model.

• NotN: Shroud of Turin proven genuine after Large Hadron Collider switched on; Chrome OS's ability to boil babies disputed by Microsoft; Microsoft in exclusive search-engine deal with Murdoch.

I have bought a camera, the Fujifilm F70EXR I've been lusting after volubly since it was announced. Dispatched today, arriving tomorrow via ShittyLink. 10× optical zoom. And ISO TWELVE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED, man. Holy crap. I will be going wild with it at Vagabonds on Saturday.

Signs you might be a big poof: you keep adding "in the metaphorical sense" when you say you're feeling utterly buggered.

I have volunteered to help with the Open Rights Group board election. Being Australian is a plus point for working on a single-transferable-vote election. The precise method used will be Meek's, which is sorta complicated for more than two winners but is quite manageable for two — more complicated than an Australian House election, less complicated than an Australian Senate election. The fancy bit in Meek is that the winner's votes over quota get partially redistributed to help determine the second place. I need to write up the worked example.

(Join today. Five quid a month to kick Mandelson's bloody stupid idea to the kerb.)

Thank goodness the three-quid Co-Op Spanish red wine is eminently guzzlable, with only a soupçon of a petrol aftertaste.

Comments

[tcpip]

David Nutt is awesome. And the reporter is a twit.

[liam-on-linux.livejournal.com]

I wanna see a photoshoot with "Eve" and Alexis Skye (http://www.alexisskye.com/). Oh my, yes.

For purely research purposes. Or something. Yes.

[owdbetts.livejournal.com]

The fancy bit in Meek is that the winner's votes over quota get partially redistributed to help determine the second place.

The reason this is important, of course, is to remove the need for the classic STV tactical vote:

You're pretty sure that your first choice is going to get elected anyway, so you don't want to waste your vote on them. But, you don't want to risk losing them the election by tactical voting, either. So you place your #1 vote for a candidate you know has no chance (ideally the one you think will be eliminated first), and place your real prefered candidates in order from the #2 position on your ballot. You expect that your prefered choice will reach quota in the first count, so when your vote is reallocated it will skip your #2 candidate (because he's already reached quota) and be reallocated to your #3 candidate therefore helping your second preference candidate. But if you're wrong, and your favourite candidate hasn't reached quota yet, then your vote will be reallocated to them.

Of course, if you've got an election of voting afficianados (such as the Electoral Reform Society) then there's a risk that on of the less poplular candidates might come quite close to winning by accident :-)

-roy