Posted by Stephen Waits Sat, 21 Oct 2006 17:01:45 GMT
I’m really interested in voting systems. For example, here’s a recent post I made about Rivest’s ThreeBallot system.
Now college students are setting out to design, publish, and attack new voting systems in VoComp. We won’t have the results for another year, but I’m looking forward to what comes out of this.
Via comp.risks.
Posted by Stephen Waits Mon, 16 Oct 2006 03:03:05 GMT
TayTV has posted links to 10 documentaries, which they recommend, and are available online - for the moment anyway.
I hope to check a few of them out soon.
Posted by Stephen Waits Sun, 15 Oct 2006 16:51:02 GMT
Yes, that’s you and me. We are killers. Many of you by choice, while a few of us never chose such atrocity.
The blood of maybe a million people. Iraqis, Afghanis, and Americans. Actual credible people have estimated this - people with much more credibility than Shrub and his Posse of idiots. You choose: here’s the article.
Posted by Stephen Waits Fri, 06 Oct 2006 20:59:00 GMT
Here’s my secret ballot. Oops, it’s not a secret. Truth is, I have nothing to hide and I just feel like yapping.
I’m a registered Democrat. But I’ve not voted Dems in a very long time. I’ve wanted to switch the registration to Independent a few times, but then I usually decide against it since it let’s me vote in (or taint) some primaries.
Anyway, we’re coming up on the mid-terms. These are my plans.
California has quite a few propositions on the ballot, and here’s how I’m voting on them:
Bond measures. Definite *NO* on anything that’s a bond measure. I quickly counted over $40 BILLION in bond measures! OMFG.. $40 BILLION. That’s debt that we cannot afford. Oh, I don’t fall for the education needs more money crap - it’s not the answer.
State funded campaigns: Probably YES, but I need to do a bit more research.
Tobacco tax. Definite YES. I’m sick of all the ads on my TV spewing crap - and when I read the very end of the very fine print it says “R.J. Reynolds”, or “Smokless Tobacco Company”. You liars, I hope you have to pay. Plus I don’t smoke.
Oil tax. Definite YES. Same as tobacco, except the company is “Chevron”. Plus, I don’t think this will change gasoline prices, which are market driven. Even if it does, I don’t care. I like high gasoline prices. Less giant SUVs on the road means better bicycling and motorcycling for me, and less traffic jams for everyone.
There are a few other things about amending the State Constitution blah blah blah. I’ll either abstain, or read more about it as we get closer.
Now, as for how I’m voting on actual humans…
In years past I really identified strongly with the Natural Law Party. Unfortunately, they’ve whithered away into a project called the U.S. Peace Government. Now, the party I most identify with is the Libertarian Party.
These days are bad days in the world of U.S. Government. I believe they’re all crooks and liars, they’re all bad, they all need to go away. Something needs to be done. So, here’s my voting strategy, which was inspired by a friend of a friend.
I will not vote for any incumbent in any office.
If the incumbent is a Republican, I’ll vote Democrat.
If the incumbent is a Democrat, I’ll vote Libertarian.
Next up, Green, then maybe I’ll just play roulette. Maybe I’ll try to guess which one doesn’t believe in the whole jesus fable and pick them?
I usually do not vote by party. Instead, I’ve historically selected candidates on an individual basis; however, I think this is the right way to go this time around.
That’s it. That’s my conscience, that’s my vote. I hope that with these elections we can start down the path of fixing the giant mess.
And, finally, I hope you’ll all go out and vote your collective conscience this Fall.
Posted by Stephen Waits Thu, 05 Oct 2006 04:47:50 GMT
Plus she’s one bucktooth ugly bitch at the same time. See the report yourself at FactCheck.org.
Posted by Stephen Waits Sat, 30 Sep 2006 05:08:49 GMT
A 5th grade teacher is suspended, ultimately fired (no contract renewal), because some wanker kid’s parent complained that they saw some nude art at the local museum. WTF.. this place is an ever rotting shithole.
Article here on NYTimes (reg req’d).
Posted by Stephen Waits Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:05:54 GMT
Ron Rivest (he’s the “R” in RSA) has published a paper on a new secure, private voting system.
It’s interesting - but he’s giving our public a bit too much credit. I do think much of the system could be automated, or dumbed down enough for regular idiots to deal with it; however, people simply won’t be able to understand why their receipt doesn’t match their vote. Furthermore, I don’t think most people will even be able to look up their vote online. Still, it’s new and very interesting.
I also like that it supports Approval Voting without too much effort. If we could get Approval voting (it’s simpler than Condorcet or IRV [which is broken anyway]) into action in this world, we’d all be much better off.
Get the paper here.
Posted by Stephen Waits Sat, 15 Jul 2006 19:27:32 GMT
It’s not like they’re hard to find or anything. But some, usually the most vocal, the one’s at the top, are particularly bad. Maybe most.
Yah, I could pick on anyone, but I’m picking on Christians today. I don’t like ‘em.
Anyway.. today’s Crooked Christian? Ralph Reed.
Posted by Stephen Waits Fri, 07 Jul 2006 14:54:00 GMT
Anyone who’s lived in New Orleans would probably expect this. Outsiders may be surprised, but insiders certainly won’t.
Posted by Stephen Waits Sat, 01 Jul 2006 00:01:19 GMT
It’s shrub singing bono.. which is really ironic.
Posted by Stephen Waits Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:42:14 GMT
Yah folks, Shrub and his idiot posse did it again. How anyone could believe their “intelligence” photos after the whole yellowcake thing is way beyond me.
Posted by Stephen Waits Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:07:44 GMT
This is obvious to me. All of chrstianity is, umm, stupid mythical crap.
But Penn & Teller boil it down so that idiots might also understand in this video. Good luck though. In my experience, idiots cling pretty tightly to this crap.
More good reading is the Skeptics Annotated Bible where the bible is essentially torn apart like starving TJ whores might do to an ignorant drunk college boy.
Posted by Stephen Waits Fri, 02 Jun 2006 07:24:00 GMT
about another topic and crazy scary but crazy important story that won’t get any coverage to speak of.
They’re all evil.
Posted by Stephen Waits Fri, 02 Jun 2006 07:20:00 GMT
It really really isn’t. Blowback begats blowback. Gang violens and all that.
Our leaders have the minds of mice. Fucking assholes.
Posted by Stephen Waits Wed, 31 May 2006 16:05:36 GMT
Check out this analysis of oil prices. The interesting thing is that compared to the 70’s crisis, oil today is still a bargain.
I’m all for $8/gallon oil. It helps reduce traffic, gets more people on bicycles and motorcycles, and reduces giant (empty) SUVs. It’s good pressure.
Sadly though, it really screws over lower-income people.
Posted by Stephen Waits Mon, 29 May 2006 16:23:30 GMT
Can’t trust anything these days. As if we didn’t know, some of the news is fake.
Posted by Stephen Waits Sun, 28 May 2006 01:07:48 GMT
An article over at Media Matters has a few interesting points to make:
… studies have shown that viewers of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart are consistently better informed about current events than consumers of other media, and Daily Show viewers are considerably better educated than viewers of The O’Reilly Factor. Further, consumers of Fox News in general have been found to be significantly more misinformed about current events than consumers of other mainstream media.
That’s good stuff. I know a few highly educated people who gulp down everything O’Reilly says like mid-westerners on meth. Formal education doesn’t translate to intelligence, or one’s ability to see clearly. Those political blinders are thick.
Posted by Stephen Waits Fri, 12 May 2006 14:54:21 GMT
Ars is running a great article about Topsail.
Seriously scary stuff.. The NSA seems to have switched roles from foreign spying to domestic spying. That sucks.
Oh, BTW, Shrub and company still HAVEN’T CAUGHT THE TOP AL QAEDA LEADERSHIP! Try to remember that the next time you see him saying the reason for all of this, in his bumfuck retardo I’m a complete fucking idiot hick accent, is so we can catch “Al Qaeda”.
Ars also linked to some rather insightful comments, with several updates, from Defense Tech.
Posted by Stephen Waits Thu, 04 May 2006 03:30:25 GMT
Check out this mostly non-metal “assault” weapon. The whole calling them “assault” weapons is fucking retarded. Even Schneier seems to have fallen for this politically-charged name.
Guns rule.
Everyone should have them.
Via Schneier on Security.
Posted by Stephen Waits Tue, 02 May 2006 15:28:25 GMT
I know.. that’s nothing new. But his official “idiot level” may actually be different than you thought. Check out this video.
Via reddit.
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