German Elections; Rouhani Interview; Sudan Protests; Digital Myanmar; NYC Air; Bangkok Post
Today we begin by taking the plunge into German politics following the latest election. Then we look at the well dressed friendly new president of Iran. In Sudan oil prices and budget problems are causing mass protests. While in Myanmar the kids are getting more and more digital. NYC's air is cleaner than ever. NEWZ Source this week: The Bangkok Post.
Mark Fonseca Rendeiro
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tim Pritlove
Berlin, Germany
Links:
I wouldn’t translate it as “the grand coalition” but as “the big coalition”. After all it isn’t “die großartige Koalition” but “die große Koalition”.
The problem about “lost votes” and giving out more than one vote is exactly what a ranking would solve. It is what we solve on crowdranking: http://crowdranking.com/
A user’s number 1 item counts as 1, 2 as 1/2, 3 as 1/4, 4 as 1/8 etc. For the crowdranking these values are simply added up for each item and then the items are sorted in descending order. Very simple and totally generic (i.e. you don’t have to rank all the items and it’s still “stable” – it degrades gracefully to simple voting if the users only choose one item each).
The question is how much more complicated would elections get if you would use something like that on paper? You’d have to do it on paper because of all the problems concerning voting computers (them being uncontrollable black boxes etc.).
Using a ranking “voting for everybody” would not just make a difference, it would be the most precise way to vote.
The FDP wasn’t kicked out of parliament “even in Bavaria”.
The FDP was present in the Landtag for the last 5 years, after 15 years of absence, after 5 years of presence, after 10 more years of absence.
(Sorry, I accidentally posted the above before I had finished editing it.)
Thanks for the show. I really appreciate it :)
Tim, you used a False Friend: Isolation im Sinne von Dämmung ist englisch insulation (im Gegensatz zur abtrennenden Isolation, die auch im Englischen isolation ist).