Election Odds

Posted on November 17, 2007 by Bryn

We are only 7 days out from the Australian federal election and I have been wasting spending a significant amount of time reading election related websites/blogs including:

In 168 hours the polls will be closed and then the election night fun begins.

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2,000,000,000th photo on flickr

Posted on November 14, 2007 by Bryn

The TWO BILLIONTH photo has been uploaded to flickr and it was taken in Sydney 🙂

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Clarke & Dawe

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Bryn

via Pia Waugh’s blog

Selected episodes Clarke & Dawe’s political interviews are available on John Clarke’s site. In light of the fact that we are quite possibly witnessing the final days of Howard’s “leadership” I would recommend Deja vu 1995.

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Why I will vote below the line in the Senate

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Bryn

On election day I will be numbering 79 boxes with with the numbers 1 to 79. Like 3-5% of the Australian population I will vote below the line in the Senate.
The Australian Senate is elected with a preferential proportional representation voting system. This is an extremely complex, and I would argue general extremely fair and democratic, system. The system requires the voter to indicate their order of preference of all the candidates standing in their state. The voter has the choice of two ways of how to do this: they can vote above the line by placing a 1 in the box for the party of their choice or below the line, by numbering all the boxes for all the candidate. If the voter votes above the line for a party, their preferences are distributed how that party specifies according to the Group Voting Tickets, not necessarily how that voter would have voted if they had voted below the line.

All parties have lodged their Group Voting Tickets with AEC, these show what an above the line vote is equivalent to below the line. The Group Voting Tickets are published on the AEC website as PDFs, on the ABC website in easier to follow HTML. Looking at these you can see where your vote will actually go when you vote for a particular party. It is very interesting to study where each party directs their perferences, in some cases it is based on ideologies, environmental preferencing environmental, left wing preferencing left wing etc, but in other cases it seems to be based purely on deals, two parties who do not share political ideas swap preference just to increase their chance of election. The problem I have with the latter is that people’s can end up electing a candidate who they disapprove of. Some people may say this is a problem of having a preferential voting system, would disagree in the extreme. I am extremely proud to live in a county with a preferential system, as I believe it is the fairest type of system. I think that the issues are: that the political parties decide the preferences not you the voter when you vote above the line and that with 70+ candidate it is difficult to vote below the line, that is why only 3-5% people do it. Greens leader Bob Brown has suggested a new system:

“Have people number the parties for the Senate in the order of their choice above the line, that’s a simple prescription,” he said.

“I will be putting that to the next government, we Greens will be moving for that, so that people make up their own minds.”

abc

I agree with him, but at this election I want MY VOTE to goto who I choose, so I will be filling in all 79 boxes on election day.

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Social Networks, Web 2.0 and Schools

Posted on November 2, 2007 by Bryn

Schoolboards: net dangers over-rated; bring social networks to school By David Cassel

The internet isn’t as dangerous as people think, and teachers should let students use social networks at school.

link

This article was posted on an education mailing list that I’m part of. I think it brings up many issues.

I can see the issue from two perspectives: I am, relatively, young and am part of the social networking generation and I am embarking on a career as a teacher, so feel I can see parts of these issues from both perspectives.

First off, this is based on a new study funded by Microsoft, News Corporation, and Verizon; all corporations who have a vested interest in promoting social networking.

Internet access in schools has always been an issue, I was in high school during the 90s when schools first got internet access, it was, and still is, protected by filtering software. This filtering software is never perfect, for example students were unable to access asx.com.au, the site of the Australian Stock Exchange, for the schools network. Teachers have a duty of care over their students, so I fully understand why schools and the authorities that run them have been so reluctant and cautious about internet access within schools. Within the physical bounds of the school, the kids are students who have to obey the school rules and the teachers have legal responsibility over them, I would include the schools network as part of the school. The school is accountable for what is in the school. Social network sites like myspace and facebook are obviously not part of the school’s network so the school have no jurisdiction over how students communicate.

I am personally a big fan of this whole web 2.0 thing. I check facebook (many times) every day. Do I think schools should be giving students access to likes myspace and facebook during school time? … may be not. Within a year in many, but not all, school students will be access these kinds of sites via mobile phone any way. I do think that web technologies need to play a part in schools. The most valuable web technology, I can see are wikis, I can see wikis being used as very effective collaborative tools and making students aware of these web tools. The use of wikis, blogs etc, within or outside, schools by young people will make them more web savvy, and I think that is what we want for people for whom the web is playing large part in their lives, so that they will act sensibly online as well as offline and it seems that most young people are.

Since I started this blog post, over a week ago, I have found two other related posts

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Why Shane Warne was never Test Captain

Posted on October 20, 2007 by Bryn

from cricinfo

It has been revealed the reasons why in 2000 Cricket Australia’s board striped Shane Warne of the vice-captaincy and thus his hope that he would ever gain the captaincy of the Australian team. The reasons given by the board were:

* Taught a lesson
* Leadership brings other responsibilities
* Given opportunities and shown that he can’t
* Not this one issue (texting an English nurse)
* History of incidents
* Catalogue of reckless conduct
* Responsibility to maintain public confidence

I could of guessed that the reasons for Warne’s lose of the vice-captaincy included these kinds of incidents listed.

When Mark Taylor retired, Steve Waugh was made captain and Warne vice-captain of the Australian Test team. Being appointed vice-captain has traditionally meant that you are next inline to the captaincy, then in 2000 during the captaincy of Waugh, Adam Gilchrist was made Waugh’s deputy at Warne’s expense.

The fact the Warne’s off field actions resulted in the lose of the on field (vice) captaincy brings up the issue of whether sports people’s off field actions should influence on field selections. In general I think that people’s private lives should be just that private, but Warne’s private life was not private at all, so I can see why Cricket Australia’s board striped him of the leadership role. Captain of the Australian cricket team is far more than just a being an on field leader for the team. They are a very public off field figure, it has been said to be the most prestigious job in the country. I don’t think any one doubts that Warne’s has the cricket brain that is required to captain a national team. I would say he has one of the best cricket brain in the game. Often at an important point in a test there is an on field conference between a number of the senior player to talk tactics, for the Australian Test Team, this has normaly been Ponting, Gilchrist and Warne, despite the fact that he is not a captain. If all media attention on Warne had concerned his cricketing abilities I believe he would of been Test Captain.

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