Earlier I made a post about problems with elections and democratic representation in the U.S., and mentioned that I had some solutions in mind - maybe not practical ones, but just the idea of something to shoot for. Here's the second (and admittedly incomplete) part of that post.

( warning: pure political theory, some math involved )

Here there be politics. Theory stuff. Skip it if you aren't interested.I've been putting down some ideas for a paper I have been intending to write for many months now on alternative voting and democracy systems in the U.S. The idea is not to write proposed legislation, but actually go ahead and let the fancy fly for a bit and come up with the ( Read more... )

Holy Magoo, am I bored. I've basically got nothing to do for the rest of the week, and am sort of on standby in case one particular (somewhat difficult to deal with) client begins to squawk. There are good and bad parts to this. Anyway, some things:

• Changing the name of the trivia team is almost imperative at this point, after our loss. muzikmaker21 ( Read more... )

A follow-up: I mentioned a couple of posts ago about the issues guide that I picked up at my church. I decided I'd jot down the highlights of what values they were talking about, together with stances on each and a few Biblical passages in support thereof. I would gather that this would not be what people think of when they think of Christian ( Read more... )

How to steal an election in sixty seconds or less. The scientists in question are a bit thorough and long-winded, like scientists can be, so it takes them a whole nine minutes to explain.

Who to vote for, if you're in Maine. But don't fret: there are others of her party running in offices around the country. Vote for them, too.

I've already done the bit about what happened that day, at least in brief, so for today, I'll just point everyone hereNow before I get the usual OMGs and assorted expressions of ridicule, I will say that while there are a great many unanswered questions about that day (and this article does a fair-to-middling job detailing them), I do not believe ( Read more... )

Earlier, I asked some important questions, the answers of which were obviously vital for our continued survival as a species. One of the questions produced a result that was less than conclusive, which is not acceptable. Imagine that people actually think that more than two things should be considered in making choices! That's not how democracy ( Read more... )

Ever see those things on TV where they pick lottery numbers? They have machines full of ping-pong balls which are bouncing all over the place, and they yank the cover off a vacuum cleaner to slurp a (supposedly) random one to the top to see who the new millionaire is.* Anyway, that is my brain, right about now. Here's what is getting slurped to ( Read more... )

( commuting villains )

Before I get into philosophizing, be sure to check out m'man funky DJ Ted Stevens, whose fascinating explanation of the Internet has been techno-remixed. Get down wi'yo' bad selves.

( from the heavy thought department )