cool web links

• Now this is why they invented the internet – Putin on a Ritz.
• Find your blues name
• Cool number plate.
•  Food photography disaster
• Cats and dogs
• Theo’s doormats
• Colour blind graph.
• Pencil zipper
• Black and WTF
• More proof that all current affairs can be vastly improved with animation. (Thanks JM Heinrichs.)
• Sneezing baby panda
• How to boil an egg.
• Dodgy mugshot haircuts.
• Ghost caught on camera – careful, spooky!
• Nice catch
• Xylophone fence.
• How cute - free hugs!
• A Japanese history lesson.
• A day at the beach.
• Room-mate advisory card.
• Ancient artefacts explained.
• If all else fails, this is how the independents might decide the election.

			exploding whale

The sad euthanasing of a sick whale off WA reminds us of the infinite wisdom of these beautiful sea creatures. The language of the whales transcends culture and species and unifies everyone and everything. Whale energy brings us inner knowledge, deep understanding and clarity of perspective.

But TNT is far more powerful, as demonstrated in this classic video…

 

			Professor Wanna, ABC

Only a week ago, Julia Gillard's Australian Labor Party looked to be ahead on the two-party-preferred vote, and this article appeared in The Australian:

“Two experts in Australian politics have backed Labor's claim to form a government if the election ends as a dead heat.

Labor claims that its higher two-party-preferred vote gives the party more legitimacy to govern if it gains the same number of seats as the Coalition.

As the electoral deadlock continues, Australian National University professor of politics John Wanna told The Australian legitimacy to form government would come primarily from the number of seats held by each of the major parties after all the votes were counted.

But if each party ended up with 73 seats, Professor Wanna said, Labor's higher two-party-preferred vote would lend it more legitimacy to govern than the Coalition's higher primary vote.

Tony Abbott's claim to legitimacy, based on the Coalition having about half a million more primary votes, was "a little bit bogus", he said. "Your vote is a transferable vote, right down to the last preference -- the primary vote is not that important."

Professor Wanna said independent Liz Cunningham, who had the balance of power in the Queensland state election in 1996, looked to the two-party-preferred vote when backing a minority Coalition government.”

Now it turns out that the coalition has a very good chance of winning the two-party-preferred vote by the time that counting is finished. But Professor Wanna appears to have had a change of heart. If you scroll to the 7:15 mark in the ABC’s midday news, you will hear him say this:

“[Two party preferred voting is] not really a big issue of legitimacy one way or another…”

If The Australian reported his comments accurately, this would seem to be a remarkable change of heart. It remains to be seen if Labor wins the ultimate two-party preferred vote, whether he'll reconsider his opinion.

What Professor Wanna – and the ABC – appear to have failed to disclose, is that he has previously worked for the ALP, as you will find about a quarter of the way down in this document:

“Labor commissioned academic Professor John Wanna of the Australian National University to analyse the LNP proposal to cut public spending.”

On this occasion, in a remarkable coincidence, Professor Wanna also appears to have come to a conclusion that the ALP found useful.

			AB frigging C, redux

First there was this. Then came this and this and this. And now there's this.

Oh dear.

			Alternative uses for Parliament House

I met a public servant from Canberra recently and asked her how things were going during the extended period without a Government. Her response was, never better, which got me wondering - would it matter if we actually closed Parliament down for another three years?

All that Governments seem to have done in recent years is develop new and more reckless ways to waste taxpayers’ money. So long as we balanced the budgets and some South American-style General did not step in, it could work well.

All of which brings us to the Top Ten Alternative Uses for Canberra's Parliament House.

10. Theme Park

The hills outside Australia's Parliament House would make, arguably, the finest grass skiing complex in the southern hemisphere. The stairways in the main lobby could make awesome slides, the Great Hall has the potential to make a great tenpin bowling alley and curling arena, while the House of Representatives would make a pretty useful squash court.

9. Swimming Pool

Just plug the gaps around the doors with some araldite and turn on the taps. Sweet.

8. Hydroponic hemp growing centre.

Nothing illegal, of course, but this would be the chance to fulfil the agrarian dreams of oompaloompah, Bill Shorten.

 7. Getup/Crikey/ABC headquarters.

Just to formalise the current arrangements, but giving us the option of locking the doors.

6. Fire shelter

A feature likely to be required by the citizens of Canberra thanks to the Green politics of the local legislature.

5. National NIMBY centre

If Canberrans want to have National Museums and National Art Galleries, they should also be expected to host National things that nobody else wants, for example, incinerators and toxic waste dumps. This also includes nearly any public event occurring at Byron Bay.

4. Retirement home for self-important old gasbags

This is the ideal place for Kevin Rudd to hold a never ending Summit, interrupted only by the burying of time capsules, climate change conferences, and occasional delivery of solemn national apologies. This, it's true, would be a particular kind of hell, but would be a place for progressives to use up energy without making any difference.

3. National Mini Golf Centre

A good architect could turn this into, arguably, the southern hemisphere’s greatest Putt Putt Golf complex, complete with the raising and lowering of the flag every time someone sinks the final putt.

2. Detention Centre

Asylum seekers can be given the option of living in Canberra or returning to whatever hell hole they came from. If this won't stop the boats, I'm not sure what will.

1. Big W

 As a top source of flanellette shirts, trakkie daks and beanies, this is likely to be the preferred alternative use for the citizens of Canberra. Australia’s lowest prices every day.

			Tony Abbott, two party preferred, Australian election

If the will of the people is any guide - and it bloody well ought to be the only guide -  Tony Abbott is heading towards a famous victory following news that the coalition has moved ahead of the election count on a two-party preferred basis. Gillard had used this lead as a justification for forming Government.

Julia Gillard meanwhile, may move forward to become the second Prime Minister beaten by the unelectable Abbott in 10 weeks, and then downwards to become a footnote in Australian political history.

As Andrew Bolt points out:

Tony Abbott’s Coalition:

• won the most votes
• won the most seats, 73 to 72
• won the most votes, after preferences
• won the most support in the three independents’ seats, as measured by the Senate vote
• won the most support in the three independents’ seats, as measured by two polls since the election.

The matter of winning the two party preferred vote is not trivial, as explained in this article from a week ago in The Australian, when Labor was in the lead:

TWO experts in Australian politics have backed Labor's claim to form a government if the election ends as a dead heat.

Labor claims that its higher two-party-preferred vote gives the party more legitimacy to govern if it gains the same number of seats as the Coalition.

As the electoral deadlock continues, Australian National University professor of politics John Wanna told The Australian legitimacy to form government would come primarily from the number of seats held by each of the major parties after all the votes were counted.

But if each party ended up with 73 seats, Professor Wanna said, Labor's higher two-party-preferred vote would lend it more legitimacy to govern than the Coalition's higher primary vote.

Tony Abbott's claim to legitimacy, based on the Coalition having about half a million more primary votes, was "a little bit bogus", he said. "Your vote is a transferable vote, right down to the last preference -- the primary vote is not that important."

Professor Wanna said independent Liz Cunningham, who had the balance of power in the Queensland state election in 1996, looked to the two-party-preferred vote when backing a minority Coalition government.

John Warhurst, professor of social science and Australian politics at the Australian National University, agreed that the Labor Party's two-party-preferred vote "has the stronger argument".