Australia's recent election was held under a very distorting electoral system, and like in Britain, resulting in a hung parliament.
We'll do the same exercise as for the UK in determining what the Australian parliament should have looked like if a proper proportionally democratic electoral system had been used:
Party: votes, vote percentage, seats (difference with current provisional outcome)
Australian Labor Party: 4,089,531 38.47% 58 (-12)
Liberal: 3,230,990 30.39% 46 (+3)
Liberal National Party of Queensland: 960,395 9.03% 14 (-7)
The Greens: 1,210,998 11.39% 17 (+16)
The Nationals: 405,322 3.81% 6 (-1)
Family First: 234,675 2.21% 3 (+3)
CDP Christian Party: 71,262 0.67% 1 (+1)
Independent: 271,323 2.55% 4 (0)
A hung parliament too. Nothing wrong with that. But it would represent Australians better.
August 25, 2010
August 21, 2010
What's the problem with nudity?
The Documentary Channel screened this BBC Horizon programme called "What's the problem with Nudity" the other night.
It tried to figure out why nudity is such a social problem for our species by asking 8 total strangers who have never stripped or been nude in front of other people (and a battery of TV cameras) to do exactly that. Coupled with a potted history of homo sapiens and more ancient forebears, it tried to figure out at what stage in our genetic and cultural history we decided that it was not OK to be around others without "clothes" on.
As this kind of cod TV science goes, it was rather un-illuminating on practically all questions it set out to answer. On the contrary, it left me with a great deal of other queries about aspects that never got touched on.
The obvious clanger was asking 21st Century males and females to rate male chests' sexual attractiveness based on hirsuteness or baldness of said chests. This was supposed to give a clue that evolutionary we have lost our body hair because females preferred to mate with hairless men. But what this really showed was the scientific incompetence of the sex researchers setting up such a thoughtless, biased and uncontrolled experiment: even intuitively (if I may) I would have shown the subjects a range of hairy and hairless women to rate, and I bet the outcome would have been far more pronounced in favour of hairless-ness than the male-only version. Hairy females did far worse evolutionary speaking than hairy males, just look at the number of hairy men still with us compared to the amount of hairy females (ladies with moustaches notwithstanding) and the relentless marketing of lady-shaves, depilatory products and the opprobrium heaped on unshaven continental women.
And we all know that when woman are at their most fertile era in their cycle, they prefer hairy bad boys as bed mates over plucked metrosexuals - and this has a long history too: interbreeding with hairy Neanderthal men apparently was far more common than many of us would like to remember.
It tried to figure out why nudity is such a social problem for our species by asking 8 total strangers who have never stripped or been nude in front of other people (and a battery of TV cameras) to do exactly that. Coupled with a potted history of homo sapiens and more ancient forebears, it tried to figure out at what stage in our genetic and cultural history we decided that it was not OK to be around others without "clothes" on.
As this kind of cod TV science goes, it was rather un-illuminating on practically all questions it set out to answer. On the contrary, it left me with a great deal of other queries about aspects that never got touched on.
The obvious clanger was asking 21st Century males and females to rate male chests' sexual attractiveness based on hirsuteness or baldness of said chests. This was supposed to give a clue that evolutionary we have lost our body hair because females preferred to mate with hairless men. But what this really showed was the scientific incompetence of the sex researchers setting up such a thoughtless, biased and uncontrolled experiment: even intuitively (if I may) I would have shown the subjects a range of hairy and hairless women to rate, and I bet the outcome would have been far more pronounced in favour of hairless-ness than the male-only version. Hairy females did far worse evolutionary speaking than hairy males, just look at the number of hairy men still with us compared to the amount of hairy females (ladies with moustaches notwithstanding) and the relentless marketing of lady-shaves, depilatory products and the opprobrium heaped on unshaven continental women.
And we all know that when woman are at their most fertile era in their cycle, they prefer hairy bad boys as bed mates over plucked metrosexuals - and this has a long history too: interbreeding with hairy Neanderthal men apparently was far more common than many of us would like to remember.
August 18, 2010
The mouse that roared
Fun with headlines:
Luxembourg attacks Germany
When Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, next meets his European counterparts, will he be heaped with praise - or brickbats? Germany’s economy is on a roll. It grew by 2.2 per cent in the three months to June, its best quarterly performance since reunification in 1990. But that has not necessarily gone down well with colleagues in other European capitals.
Unnoticed beyond his tiny country’s borders, Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg’s prime minister, earlier this month launched an extraordinary attack on German economic policy, according to the Luxemburger Wort. Germany’s success was based on “wage and social dumping,” Mr Juncker is reported as having said. “The way Germany went about improving its competitiveness, I would not like to see in our country.” Since the launch of the euro in 1999, German workers had seen a meagre 12 per cent rise in wages, whereas his countrymen saw a 41 per cent rise, he went on.
August 13, 2010
å for awesome!
Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier
When you put genius minds of The Onion and Lars Von Trier together, you get a Danish Tourism Board promotion that is horrifically close to proving why the Danes are the happiest people on earth.
I'm not sure whether Lee Tamahori Meets The Feebles would do the same trick for New Zealand though.
August 02, 2010
Prisoner beats up gaoler for more mayo
A typically Belgian news story: A jailbird in Hasselt beats up prison officer because there was not enough mayonnaise on his chips. I get bloody angry too when that happens!
UPDATE 2 September: The prisoner has been put on a "strict individual regime" for 3 months as punishment for complaining about the mayonnaise.
Een cipier van de Hasseltse gevangenis is al een week arbeidsongeschikt, en moet ook deze week nog thuisblijven. Vorige week zondag was hij met de maaltijden in de cellen rondgegaan. Bij een 22-jarige gedetineerde ontstond er een discussie over de frieten. De jongeman vond dat er te weinig mayonaise op de frieten was, en werd agressief. Hij trok de cipier in de cel en gaf hem enkele raken klappen in het gezicht. De cipier moest voor verzorging naar het ziekenhuis, en is minstens veertien dagen arbeidsongeschikt.
UPDATE 2 September: The prisoner has been put on a "strict individual regime" for 3 months as punishment for complaining about the mayonnaise.
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