MacDonalds, Golgotha, Thesis 0.904, Photos, British Elections and Smart (-arse) animals.

[tcpip]

Last Thursday was spent with Caseopaya at Supersize Me, being Tabouli's birthday gathering. A thoroughly disturbing, eccentric and confrontational production, it does leave relatively unanswered what exactly do we do about the junk-food inspired health disaster that the overly wealthy advanced nations are facing. Loki, despite having some troubling personal times, excelled in his wit and irony and brought MacDonalds cookies for all to eat. For the first time in twenty two years I ate something from MacDonalds.

My practical take on the issue is as following: On one hand I think that producers do have the freedom to produce whatever crap they think will sell - although I may also hold that they are (*ahem*), "ethically challenged". I also think that people can consume whatever junk they want (up to and including hard drugs). By the same token, I also hold that prior to production and consumption individuals must be educated on what the health risks are and the producer should be required (as with other food products) to list on the packaging what nutritional value is in their product.

Sunday night was spent with severina_242 at Golgotha, the irregular goth/ebm evening at the Megabar (yes, by the gods, I went out!). It was a great night. Caught up with a lot of people (and missed quite a few others apparently), including frou_frou, dr_zero, horngirl, blithespririt, adricongirl and lo-and-behold a bunch of Perth people who were over for a sf con, including David, Sarah and Sheldon - the latter whom I hadn't spoken to for over a decade.

Handed in version 0.904 of my thesis. I predict my supervisors recommend I reduce it by about 35,000 words and read and reference a dozen more books and about twenty journal articles. Yes, I realize this is contrarictory. Still, it feels amazing to have the entire thing printed and bound. And I must say I'm pretty happy with it as a complete product.

At long last I've managed to put together a preliminary webpage of photos from East Timor, Tasmania and New Zealand. Enjoy these holiday/work snapshots. Note that I have dozens more yet to go up... (nota bene for dailup people - 30 photos, c30K each)

Blair takes a beating over Iraq, but Red Ken wins again. The vanguard parties ought to look Green. What to draw out of all this? Don't get involved in unjust wars, federations will fail unless you involve people and don't think that criticism of the system is enough - you also need an alternative.


Dogs are smatter than you think. So are ducks apparently (from JesusAndrew). And whilst on the topic of smart animals, let's have ones that choose a religion...

Brain breaker of the week is from convert_me. The lamb of god (for kids).

Comments

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

I finally get to see the echinda again! Woohoo!!

Yeah, I know - I just comment on the trivial aspects of your journal.

Lamb of God was kinda cute - but tell a parent if there is an aetheist?? hmmmm

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Wait until I get the flat-invading possum shots up.

What did you think of the melakka mudskipper? I should have put up the iguana shot as well. And three wise monkeys at the batcave... And...

Oh, you get the picture. Lots of photos.

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

Pity there is no shot of that cheeky sod stealing the corn from the rats!!!!!

You know I love the mudskipper - would like to see one IRL too at some stage.

You'll get all the photos up eventually - just think of all the ones you still have to take :)

[aayande.livejournal.com]

Giraffenstein at Lamb of God is wonderful! He's so... so... wrong!

If it wasnt for the rest of the page I'd swear he was a parody.

"Creation science" is one of those phrases like "military intelligence"... what's the word... you know, a contradiction in terms... ah bugger the word's on the tip of my tongue... well you get what I mean :o)

[darkstardeity.livejournal.com]

Oxymoron.

Oxymoron

[aayande.livejournal.com]

That's the word. Thanks :o)

[redcountess]

David and I both voted for Greens in the EP and LA but Ken for Mayor because while he has returned to the Labour fold, he has done some very good things for London, especially public transport, and went on record as being against Iraq. The alternatives were Conservative or Lib Dems (the latter's candidate seemed to be "Tory Lite"), the green candidate not really any strong policies.

It was very exciting to be involved in the election process - I really don't understand why more people here don't exercise their right to vote, but there was an small but encouraging increase in the turnout, with a similar decrease in invalid votes.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

One of the differences, afiak, is that at least with the Mayoral election there is a semblance of preferential voting (i.e., the run-off), whereas with normal UK elections I believe they still use that ridiculous "government by the biggest minority" system called first-past-the-post. Is that still the case?

[redcountess]

Yes the other ballots only had one choice, including the one for the MEP

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

That lamb of god site ISN'T a parody?

Holy crap XD

I'm like.. buh!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

The court is still out on whether Lamb of God is a parody. The fact that it links to the Landover Baptists does suggest that (unlike that site), it's a subtle parody. In which case it's even funnier.

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

If it links to landover baptists, then I'd be 99.9% sure that it's a parody.

Either that or they're really, really dumb XD

McDonalds update...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Aarrgh!

Bloody Labor Party - they always agree with me after the fact.

ALP bid to wean kids off TV junk food. Right idea comrades, wrong strategy. Get the packaging labelled. Teach teenagers (and parents if necessary) nutrition.

Exit polls please

[erudito.livejournal.com]

The automatic assumption that Brit Labour doing badly was Iraq looks pretty lame with the European Parliament election results, where Blair did best of the major incumbents (who all did awfully).

I suspect that Brit voters actually don't care about Iraq that much. There a whole lot of domestic issues to beat Blair over, as there are across Europe.

Re: Exit polls please

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

That's a good point, and one which is only just being raised in the media.

One important issue to consider however is party membership motivation. As is typical of most social democratic parties the leadership is more conservative that the rank and file membership. Not that I'm entirely disapproving of that of course, the leadership are trying to get elected - but there are times when they engage in actions which are so antithetical to the mood of the membership that the latter simply withdraw their voluntary labour. I suspect this may be the case with the British Labour Party.

Re: Exit polls please

[erudito.livejournal.com]

Still doesn't work. Are you trying to tell me that SPD workers withdrew their labour even more?

I am not saying that angst over Iraq wasn't a factor, I just suspect that it was a very small one.

One could argue that Blair, by agreeing to a referendum on the EU Constitution (which it is pretty clear, he will lose: in fact, I am not sure that a referendum to leave the EU wouldn't win) managed to soften anti-EU angst a bit compared to Chirac and Schroder. Also, the UK economic performance is better. So, perhaps Iraq did knock him down a bit more. But that still leaves it a small factor.

Re: Exit polls please

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

According to RFE/RL:

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/06/fb3f98bc-c575-4d7b-af75-5053833f9657.html

In some cases the losses were staggering. Germany's ruling Social Democrats recorded their worst electoral showing since World War II, garnering half as many votes as the conservative opposition Christian Democrat/Christian Social parties. In France, the same happened to President Jacques Chirac's center-right Union for a Democratic Movement, which was routed by the opposition Socialists.

In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party lost out to right-leaning parties, and Poland saw a similar development. By contrast, the ruling Socialists in Spain and the ruling conservatives in Greece managed to increase voter support.

The unpopularity of the U.S.-led Iraq war is seen as having lost Blair votes, while German and French economic stagnation was what hit Schroeder and Chirac.

As commentators go on to say, what is lacking from the European elections is a sense that it's about Europe. Which indicates (which I have no doubt you'll agree) serious institutional problems.

Re: Exit polls please

[erudito.livejournal.com]

I would have thought longevity in office is the common denominator. The Socialists in Greece jus won office, as I believe is also true of the Conservatives in Greece. So you would expect them not to suffer.

I think citing Iraq is just a case of lazy analysis and wishful thinking.

Even with Iraq, do you anti-war feeling per se? Or concern over botching the job? (Which I am sure is damaging Dubya, for good reason.) These do not have the same political implications, to say the least.

And yes, it is just a collection of nations in a Parliament used as a vast by-election. Hence my point about where incumbents are in the electoral cycle.

Re: Exit polls please

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Whilst there is such a thing as the electoral cycle, that cycle can be accelerated according to issues. I think Iraq was an issue in the UK case given how strongly Blair was an advocate for the invasion. Is there an antiwar feeling? Very much so. But those who had lukewarm support for the war and now increasingly opposed to it given that (a) the two main justifications )links to terrorist organizations and weapons of mass destruction) have proven to be erroneous and (b) the fact that the war continues despite being declared "over" many months ago and now the issue of allied abuses against prisoners.

Re: Exit polls please

[erudito.livejournal.com]

There is a difference between views and intensivy of views.

People in Oz had views on the Republic. They were just not very important to them, as the 'what issues do you think are important' polls consistently showed.

They had views on the flag. They were important to them (hence the speed with which Keating dropped changing the flag).

That there is anti-war feeling, yes. How important people ranked them in voting for local councils and European Parliament, not sure. Particularly given the pattern of voting for the two was rather different. Local councils are an odd place to register anti-war sentiments. Voting Tory is a particularly odd way to do so.

Supersize response

[iberalla.livejournal.com]

i enjoyed that movie apart from the fact that i felt physically ill for most of it and can never eat McDonalds again after a particular 'super' scene.

McDonald's advertising response is interesting, but predictable. Write off the movie without responding to any of the issues it raised.

Re: Supersize response

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

can never eat McDonalds again

I've become very food conscious after that film. Best bit of populist nutrition advice I've seen for a long time.

Write off the movie without responding to any of the issues it raised.

Well, they have dumped their super-size option. But like most organizations (and people!) they'll never admit anything.