Disproportional representation

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Scotland - Poverty linked to spoiled ballots
A study into the Scottish election voting fiasco has found the highest proportion of rejected constituency votes came in the most deprived areas. The probe, by the University of Strathclyde, was triggered by the chaos which saw more than 140,000 spoiled papers in the May poll. It also found that more votes were discounted in areas where there were a larger number of list candidates.

Clearly it's not poverty, as such, which is the issue but the ability of voters to understand complex directions. Poor schooling, poor educational attainment, poverty, poor housing - it was voters from these backgrounds that had the greatest trouble understanding the badly designed voting system. And that's leaving aside the many more constituents who didn't bother to vote at all. Once the decision had been made to hold the local and assembly elections on the same day and using a single-paged ballot it was inevitable that complexity alone would lead to spoiled papers and that the disadvantaged members of society would be disproportionally affected.



Spooky but moving

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Age Progression, Age Regression, Composite Sketching, Forensic Art, Forensic Facial Imaging Compositing, Age Progressing Photos...
Through Forensic Compositing we can do Age Progression/Regression to help investigators solve crimes and find missing people. This service is also available for the general public. Ever wonder what your child will look like in 10 years? Have you lost a loved one and are wondering what they would look like now...
"I'm 78 and would like to see what my son would have looked like before I die. He was 2 when he was killed and would now be in his 30's...



...Wow, When I first saw the photo you did, I was floored, it was just shocking as if I was looking at the real thing. A tingle went through my spine. You really captured my son."
 
Harry G - Lacey, WA

Via J-Walk


Fun with images

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plasq.com - Skitch - Snap, Draw, Share



I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. Plasq, the makers of Comic Life for Mac finally released the invite-only Beta of Skitch, its new fun screen-capture and graphics application. As soon as I get  some more invites I'll post them here. It's been over a year since I registered for the trial but it looks like they spent the time well. As with Comic Life this is a really cool looking app and utterly Mac. You also get your own webspace (My Skitch) and url for storing and sharing your images.

It's also given me a chance to make an easy comment on those stupid cunts above. Salman Rushdie may be a prick but if you think he's the 'biggest evil of the world' you really need to get out more.


US Talk Radio imbalance

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Think Progress REPORT: The Right Wing Domination Of Talk Radio And How To End It
– In the spring of 2007, of the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners, 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming was conservative, and only 9 percent was progressive.

– Each weekday, 2,570 hours and 15 minutes of conservative talk are broadcast on these stations compared to 254 hours of progressive talk — 10 times as much conservative talk as progressive talk.

– 76 percent of the news/talk programming in the top 10 radio markets is conservative, while 24 percent is progressive.





Only one kind of dope at Glastonbury

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Sp!ked -  Rave with mother
In 2007, grass is out at Glastonbury. This year, one report says, ‘potsmokers will not be able to lounge under trees with their customary mellow insouciance, casually blowing fragrant smoke towards uninterested police officers. For the police are coming equipped with shoulder-mounted cameras that will transmit live footage back to a surveillance unit, forcing officers to take action or risk the wrath of their superiors’...

You can't even take your own loo paper. It has to be 'official' recycled stuff from Nouvelle



According to Superintendent Adrian Coombs, any cannabis users will be given a ‘street warning’, which apparently is not a criminal record ‘but it is noted as an offence against the person’s name’. If, however, you are caught smoking pot twice - two joints at a three-day festival? Never! - then the matter will be treated as a ‘more serious offence’...

According to a report in the Guardian, the police have stationed sniffer dogs at the gates of trains heading towards Glastonbury in order to catch any of these ‘foolish’ revellers who foolishly thought that Glastonbury was a haven of freedom. Think of it as pre-emptive policing to create a peaceful environment so that only nice people can headbang to Bassey.




'Missionary politics'

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Neoconned!: How Blair took New Labour for a ride
In this brilliant new essay, Britain's leading philosopher argues that Tony Blair owes more to the free-wheeling imperialists of the American right wing than Labour tradition. John Gray explains how George Bush helped shape Blair's decade in office, how religious conviction emboldened him to send troops into battle - and why the truth became a casualty of war



Crazies and lucky shoes

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I’m more likely to be assassinated here than in Baghdad, says Blair




Tony Blair believes that he has been in greater danger of assassination on the streets of Britain than in Iraq.

In a surprise insight during a series of lengthy interviews with The Times Mr Blair, when asked why he had not worn body armour during a recent visit to Baghdad, said: “It’s far more likely I’ll shake hands with a group of kids today and somebody does something crazy than on a day in Iraq.


Blair has revealed the secret of his success at PMQ.
Lucky shoes.

The secret of Tony Blair’s success at the dispatch box has been revealed to be a pair of lucky brogues that he has worn at every Prime Minister’s Questions since 1997.Mr Blair, who believes that “cheap shoes are a false economy”, has seen off four Conservative and two Liberal Democrat leaders in the Church’s handmade leather shoes. “I know it’s ridiculous, but I’ve worn them for every PMQs,” he told The Times in an interview to be published in full tomorrow. “I’ve actually had them for 18 years,” and they have been resoled once. Mr Blair believes that he has never had three bad Prime Minister’s Questions in a row and puts this down – in part – to his lucky shoes.

Digby revealed

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Firedoglake - Ladies and Gentlemen, Digby

A great speech at the Take Back America conference from the pseudonymous blogger Digby, who runs the progressive, award winning,  political blog, Hullabaloo. I think it's fair to say that most people, myself included, thought Digby was a man........WRONG!

It would be wonderful to see a political blogging movement in this country as strong and as vibrant as the progressive movement in the States. Maybe we are lucky that politics hasn't deteriorated over here to the extent it has in the US.  These progressive bloggers are motivated by a real fear that their country and their constitution are under attack from within and from the very people charged with protecting and defending them. I hope we see our own 'Digbys' emerge before things get that bad in our own country.


End of Term Report: Piss Poor

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Failure, failure, failure: Blair's 10 wasted years on education
Tony Blair's famous pledge that his priority would be "education, education, education" has been exposed as hollow by a withering report. It shows that England's children have plummeted in the international league tables of school achievement during his ten years in power. They are now behind South Korea, Liechtenstein and the Czech Republic in key subjects and the gap between the private sector and state schools is more pronounced than in any other country.