Passing On, Secularism, Federal Election, Gaming Updates

[tcpip]

Recently found out that angel80 has passed away, quite close to her birthday. She is a person whom I only had the pleasure of meeting once, a pleasant afternoon at a pub in Randwick, but had engaged in excellent discussion on livejournal since my days in Timor-Leste. A recognised expert in transitional and developmental economics, and especially the status of women, she is leaving behind quite a cadre of students whom she supervised PhDs, and had undertaken her courses. I am giving consideration to compiling a collection of works in her memory and honour.

On Thursday night, despite suffering the throaty effects of a very stubborn minor cold, spoke at the Victorian Humanist Society on Secularism, individual rights and democracy. It was well attended with excellent questions, even if I felt my delivery was less than optimal (*cough* *splutter*) on the night. Following night had dinner with Andrew R. and discussed the choice of the Victorian Secular Lobby for the worst major candidate (FB link) in the Australian election.

Speaking of which opinion polls do not look good for the Labor. This is quite strange given the budget blow-out by the Coalition, their ridiculous shop for boats policy, and their proposal to deny franking credits on their parental paid leave plan. Either the polls are wrong, or people really have taken leave of their senses.

On a completely different subject matter, my review of the indie axial age narrativist game.In A Wicked Age has been published on RPG.net; next review lined up is Albedo, which is weird combination of furries, hard science, and crunchy mechanics. RPG store continues do to quite well, especially given the minimal time that I'm dedicating to it. Tomorrow is another session of Karl's Space 1889 Ubiquity game, following our successes on Mercury last time.

Comments

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

One of the issues with the polls is that the two-party preferred basis doesn't allow for people who won't vote for either of the major parties, either because they think they're both terrible, or they consciously wish to vote for someone else. I remember being polled and just alternating between Labor and Liberal for the questions, because they weren't giving me the choice I would have had at the polling booth.

Also, it really feels like this time around, we're being asked to look at Abbott and Rudd almost in terms of a presidency. What with the debates, and all. It's irritating, and it certainly puts me off both of them. Which is annoying, and worrying, because I don't want the Libs to get in, but Labor has said it won't take preferences from the Greens, right? It leaves me in a pickle.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Most pollsters will ask for a first preference vote (which includes minor parties) and then either user the allocated preferences from the previous election or, in the case of Morgan, allocated preferences. Interestingly, apparently the former is more accurate. Another issue which is has come to fore is that a large number of the polls are based on robo-calls to landlines, which pretty much excludes around 90% of the population aged less than 30.

It is a presidential-style election because both leaders prefer it that way, I suspect. As for preferences, of course Labor will take preferences from the Greens; I assume you're meaning that Labor has said that they won't form a minority government with the Greens. Well, yes, that's a very silly thing to do say, because they said the same thing in Tasmania and they ended up doing so.

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

Yes, I must have got confused about the preferences. I just heard it in passing on the radio in the car, and since then, have heard them mention not forming a minority govt with the Greens. With the way things are looking, they should be so lucky :/

I was polled years ago. Possibly methods have changed somewhat?!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I was polled years ago. Possibly methods have changed somewhat?!

Almost certainly. Morgan has been cutting new ground with the multimode polling, a combination of landline calls, face-to-face, SMSes to mobiles, and online. The robocall polls are a new phenomenon, and I suspect they're completely borked.

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

Not a good way of getting a completely random sample.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

The robo-polls? Yeah, it does strike me as if they've been chosen for a particular result in mind.