Oh, I looked at that. I kind of like these, but they're a brute force attention project with a lot of scribbling on scratch paper, not really suitable for doing inbetween pretending to work.
A man is standing on the sidewalk. Suddenly, 5000 miles away, a shoe is manufactured.
ANSWER: Thousands of years before, agriculture was developed.
I just clicked through to the solution and it's more or less what I expected. You make a matrix and start filling in the entries until there's only one left empty. It seems to be a straight follow the algorithm sort of thing.
Ha, I just assumed there must have been some wrinkle that made it tougher than 4 implies. That's exactly the kind I like.
Are any of the houses in St. Ives? Any of the pets, kits?
Yeah, there's a method to these (the matrix AL mentions in 4) that can be learned. We did a ton of these in my gifted program in 5th grade.
Because clowns are purple.
(Actual answer: Why I hated the ACT so much.)
2: Exactly.
But props for hiding the requested UK election thread inside the weekend puzzler thread. Obviously Cameron, being the premier upper class git, has the fish.
I'm distressed that both squirrel and badger are pet options, but there's no cat.
Domesticated badgers would make interesting pets. They are quite smart animals.
7 - This is exactly where I first encountered (and hated) them. I think I would have hated them less if they hadn't been presented more or less explicitly as "this is a thing smart people like so you need to do a lot of them now that we think you're smart". I think they ruined by ability to find anything enjoyable about math more or less the same way.
I assume the thinking was that they were a problem-solving exercise, but the problem was always "guess the algorithm I find more intuitive" and it was less obviously useful to me at the time as it is now. They also gave us "lateral thinking" problems which were mostly things like "list seventeen ways you can use a barometer to measure the height of a building!". I'm pretty sure they came with an answer key as well, which was aggravating.
David, Ed, Nick, Nicola and Nigel each live in one of the houses.
You be you, England.
I found this puzzle unexpectedly hard, with the possibilities branching off more quickly than I could eliminate them. I was set to go all in and try to implement a dancing links algorithm to solve it when I realized I had accidently combined two clues about Nick and Nigel. Desire to solve the riddle successfully extinguished!
Is "chai latte" really a kind of coffee?
But we're only told that no two of them drink the same kind of coffee. If a chai latte is not a kind of coffee, the puzzle may have multiple valid solutions.
essear is on to something. A chai latte is clearly not a kind of coffee.
12: a new ambition, along with a draft pair of dexter miniature cattle.
I bet some places sell coffee-and-milk with a shot of sweet spices and it's idiomatically a chai latte despite the etymological inanity.
16: Dancing links is fun. The underlying data structure is beautiful.
This reminds me. I must have seen the world's oldest Starbucks, but I forgot to notice.
The LSAT has puzzles like this too. All you people who enjoy and are good at these goddamn things missed your calling as Supreme Court justices.
I got a damn near perfect LSAT score (as did BaveD), and yet neither of us have been nominated yet.
27: LSAT is a test of two things: stuff like this, and reading comprehension. And one writing section that doesn't directly affect your score.
I think I got a 167/180, which is pretty good but not awesome? In my defense, I was a college freshman and not actually interested in law.
Why did you take the LSAT as a freshman, regardless?
I had a bet with my father as to who would get the higher score, if he took a community college course for prep while I just got a P-ton Review book. I don't think he ended up doing it. In retrospect, I think he was trying to subtly goad me into preparation for a second career option just in case.
"I'll bet $5 that you can't clerk for a federal judge."
UK commenters: Do you think that the near-fixing of election dates is going to lead to American style more permanent campaigning (since your next election is in 2020, all the parties can budget and plan ahead for it), or are there enough other controls to keep electioneering in line with historical norms?
I can't remember my LSAT score but I don't think it's what's keeping me from the bench.
I had a friend in grad school who kept sleeping with his undergraduate students, despite disciplinary action, and so got kicked out. Being a math type but a total dunce about the real world, he waltzed in and took the LSAT, and aced it, and got a full ride to law school, and I lost touch with him.
I cannot find a trace of him online, oddly enough. He is the person in the world with the biggest gap between how smart he is and how stupid he is.
37: I fully believe the LSAT process has a blind spot for such people; that's somewhat ameliorated by relying on GPAs, but only somewhat.
I'd have wasted less time on this damn thing if dalraita's 10 hadn't made me wonder if I was wrong and prompted me to go back and check my work.
The "Einstein's Riddle" type puzzles are not that hard to solve once you know the right method to apply, and once you know that method you can solve any puzzle of this type. So why is it that I can't resist doing them every time I encounter them?
39: Sorry! I need clear <THISISAJOKE type='horrid'>tags</THISISAJOKE>.
You can't sign things with my pseud, no matter how clear that would be.
Of course I knew it couldn't be David, because he's the one who drinks Kahlua and travels by inner tube.
34: no, because any subsequent parliament will be able to repeal the Fixed-Term Election Act, and probably will.
I used to do these all the time when I was a kid, but of my own accord (I bought magazines full of them), not made by anyone.
So yes, I drew a grid and worked out the answer.
Currently watching this http://www.donmarwarehouse.com/whats-on/donmar-warehouse/coming-up/2015/the-vote on tv.
Further to 40, I suppose you could make these harder by having "trick question" versions. (Baba Yaga: her hut is her house, her mode of transport, and her pet!)
I really hope the exit polls are wrong. It looks like there isn't a puzzle in piecing together a UK government. Conservative and Union plus Liberal Democrat will be a majority.
Two postman divided by three milkmen makes how many bendable integratible community workers?
The exit polls have made me very sad. What the fuck, UK. Seriously.
47: 316 Conservatives plus 8 Unionists gives them a majority (of 1); they don't even need the Lib Dems, though they'll probably get them. Very depressing. Hope it's wrong; it's a long way off all the pre-election polls.
That was me. So sad, I accidentally clicked then unclicked "remember personal info". Oops.
A YouGov exit poll is giving completely different results, with the two main parties still neck and neck. Really hope that one is more accurate.
Ugh. Grim night/five years ahead. Gutted.
Maybe you can restore the monarchy?
http://www.sunnation.co.uk/up-split-creek-no-clear-winner-as-polls-close/
But it's confusing; this was initially reported as an exit poll, but apparently it was just an online poll carried out throughout today, which would explain the similarity to all the other pre-election polling.
Nate Silver on why the exit poll may not be so accurate this time as last
Yeah, from YG's twitter feed: "YouGov has not done an exit poll. A re-contact survey today simply gave us no reason to change our final numbers from yesterday."
This appeal concerns the legality of the bulk telephone metadata collection program (the "telephone metadata program"), under which the National Security Agency ("NSA") collects in bulk "on an ongoing daily basis" the metadata associated with telephone calls made by and to Americans, and aggregates those metadata into a repository or data bank that can later be queried. Appellants challenge the program on statutory and constitutional grounds. Because we find that the program exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized, we vacate the decision below dismissing the complaint without reaching appellants' constitutional arguments.
Second Circuit.
That's good! Are there reasons to think it won't just be reauthorized?
Those who followed the link to Nate Silver will also have seen this:
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/women-with-ph-d-s-buck-the-trend-toward-a-baby-bust/
...As if we had any anecdotal evidence for that.
First result in - Houghton and Sunderland South, safe Labour seat, Labour holds, UKIP second place (!) and Con third. One down.
Uninformed Yank here, but the reason a whole lot of Republicans were genuinely surprised by our 2012 election is because they forget that we vote by states. A candidate that wins with 80% in Mississippi and loses by 4% in Iowa (just making up numbers here) would have looked a whole lot better in pre-election national polling then in individualized polling. This is really, imo, the "secret" behind the better polling: looking at 50 different races, rather than one big race. (Ok, there's a little more to it than that, I suppose, but I think this is the core difference.)
I'd imagine that even if UK constituencies aren't as gerrymandered as many of our congressional districts, they're still likely to be quite polarized. So national polls doen't tell you nearly enough about the 600 whatever individual races. Or is UK polling sophisticated enough to take this into account.
UKIP have done rather better than expected. Shy Kipper effect? That'll be interesting if it takes votes from the Conservatives.
61 -- Congress can amend the Patriot Act, but that's not the easiest thing in the world to do. Not while the Executive is busy with the conquest of Texas, anyway.
I haven't read much of the decision yet, but starting off with the Church Committee sets a great tone.
65: sure, but that wouldn't explain the exit poll result. It's methodologically the same as any other poll, just after the polls close. They aren't polling each constituency individually.
So I was still getting out the vote 15 minutes before closing (the polling place was literally in the basement of the block so it was worth doing). And I took that grit test earlier on and it said I only had 20% grit. I say let's kill all the statisticians. I plan to forget arithmetic.
I'm expecting to land at Heathrow at the weekend to see huge V for Vendetta style posts of Farage and Cameron.
With two seats in, it looks like UKIP has eaten the entire Lib Dem vote, just about. Jolly good show! Deport those thieving Welshies!
Out of the country too (last minute trip so I didnt even get a postal vote)... if it has all gone to hell by the weekend, then I say we steal a Land-Rover Defender, stop off to pick up xelA and the Mrs and a few hundred rounds of 7.62mm, and head for the border at high speed, Mad Max style, before they seal it.
One thing I don't understand about the election is how some Liberal Democrat MPs seem likely to get reelected, when I'd assumed that they'd be released one by one into the Hampton Court maze and shot down for sport. That would have been my platform, if anyone had thought to make me Prime Minister. Also seems that, much like the United States, pretty much every Englishman who doesn't live in the non-suburban parts of a major city or a depressed industrial wasteland is a giant dickhole.
released one by one into the Hampton Court maze and shot down for sport
No, that kind of happened. 47 out of 57, if that poll means anything.
Which border were you thinking of, Ajay? The cold one or the soggy one?
pretty much every Englishman who doesn't live in the non-suburban parts of a major city or a depressed industrial wasteland is a giant dickhole.
This is absolutely true.
re: 77
I think we could maybe move the wall south a bit. The Geordies and Mackems would join.
I guess I shouldn't be very surprised by a bad outcome here. The UK unemployment rate is currently Europe's 2nd-lowest, behind only Germany; with Labour not really fighting challenging the fundamental premises of Tory austerity, is it really surprising that voters considered the Tories better on "the economy" 40% to 22%, and even on unemployment by 32% to 28%?
Ugh ugh ugh.
Another safe Labour seat held and another second place for UKIP. This is becoming a trend.
80 -- The odds of a for-real English Scottish border war as a result of this election are very low but they're not zero. Want to be clear right now that I'd be willing to fight for Scotland in the "Braveheart International Volunteer Legion" if I can get paid in single malt.
You know, if it is valid, the union is over. I mean the union between Yorkshire, Manchester, the NE, Birmingham, London..
Weirdly, the Nate Silver people seem to think things are looking better for Labour than they thought before the election. Maybe the two wins already have a disproportionate effect?
election s/b "polls closing and release of exit polls" obvs
Huh. Another exit poll.
https://twitter.com/michaelsavage/status/596451465612435459
So who's going to start chanting "King of the North"?
Argh, "King in the North." Someone ban me.
Shitty shit shit. Actual reverse swing sighted in Swindon North.
Oh wow, music hall farce character and climate change denialist Lord Monckton is standing for a seat in Scotland as a UKIP candidate?
Christopher Monckton. If he was Lord Monckton he couldn't stand.
I hope my impression that the Scottish people are far too sensible to vote for such a jackass holds up.
Nobody in Scotland is going to vote for UKIP. He's as relevant as when the Republican candidate for Mayor of Pittsburgh was a lunatic living in Israel, which I believe was two years ago.
They were running about 3% in Scotland-only polls. But then, polls.
95: All those who vote Wander are lost.
93: So what they say about lords being drunk is really true.
Also, 95 sort of downplays the local component. He was a nut, became the Republican candidate for mayor, then moved to Israel.
Christopher Monckton. If he was Lord Monckton he couldn't stand.
Completely trivial, I thought that if he a son waiting to inherit the title he would be Lord Monckton and could sit in Commons. For example Lord North, who sat in Commons. (Of course a lot has changed since then.)
I just looked him up, well never mind this example. He is the 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. He has the peerage.
But on the general point, is this still true?
Moved without telling the local Republican leadership, who learned of his move only when a reporter called.
He's a hereditary peer but not currently seated in the House of Lords; as such, he's entitled to sit in the House of Commons. See, e.g., Viscount Thurso, who is a Scottish MP* (as Alex suggested, under the name John Thurso).
* Though maybe not for much longer given Clegg's Last Stand.
I seriously cannot believe you folks accept a hereditary nobility. I mean, ours is offensive and pernicious, but at least it is informal.
But now the hereditary nobility can sit in Commons (if they can't sit in Lords)!
A puzzler for me. Where in my apartment are my eyeglasses? This should be entertaining.
In honor of the elections, maybe I'll have a Newcastle Brown.
Maybe I'll get wings and keep with the Yuengling.
I have a conference call tomorrow at 8am. With some people in Kansas among other places.
Can I just say I far prefer dealing with |ieut3nant co|one|s and above. Maj0rs are just exhausting.
They all still think they can make a difference.
I hope the UKers are asleep. Reading the Guardian's coverage right now is depressing enough for me. I can't imagine how I'd feel if I lived there.
Thinking a bit more about the original puzzle, I've concluded that houses in the UK must be ugly as sin. I don't remember seeing gingham, paisley, or tartan houses there, but surely logic puzzles don't lie?
113: some do, and some tell only the truth. Its like second quantization of logic puzzles.
Well, there is the candy-striped house in Kensington. The gusty bus and all that.
And this quote must have made the reporter happy: "It's very fluorescent and very garish. Without sounding very pretentious, it isn't very Kensington. It's more Camden or something like that."
So, what happens to Scotland next? With SNP newly dominant, but Cameron riding herd nationally and doing affronts like an EU exit referendum, and I can only assume breaking all promises of devomax, is independence destined to resurge as Stross thinks? Or is a better economy going to calm things down generally?
Utterly depressed here, yep. (Up working to meet a deadline, but keeping an eye on the news.) In my own constituency there was a lot of tactical voting, with Conservatives voting for the incumbent Lib Dem to keep Labour out, and left-leaning Lib Dems voting for the Labour candidate to try and stop another ConDem coalition. They've both failed; the Labour candidate is leading the count, but we're getting a Tory government anyway, maybe even a majority. Dammit.
Also, rather surprised to learn there are Catholic UKIPpers. With history and so forth, I would have assumed xenophobia went hand in hand with anti-Catholicism.
Heck, what happens with the Union? Cons ran a rather English campaign.
Fucking fucking fuck. Is my considered opinion, so far. Just back from the pub.
In news important to warbloggers circa 2004, George Galloway lost.
Well maybe now we'll avoid the half baked threats to leave the country from the American liberals if a Republican wins in 2016. HA, and leave to WHERE, assholes?!
But seriously, god, that sucks. I'm sure in a few hours I'll be seeing some angry FB posts from my Scottish cousins.
124: HA, and leave to WHERE
Alberta, Canada, apparently.
I tried to convince one guy that a certain woman was going till stab him and a woman to get her father a vasectomy for Father's Day. So, a productive night.
125,126: And what, have to endure the daily guilt of an oil based economy?
Kidding aside, I'd be down with the Calgary area. You get some cold, but a lot of sunny days and only around an hour or so from Banff. Good times.
No Moscow Mule. I have decided those are really good and make drinking clear liquor acceptable.
But that I probably shouldn't chase several beers with them if I need to work tomorrow.
Ugh, yeah. Pretty depressing. Well, it may just have been the wrong decision to pick a funny-looking Jewish guy as Labour leader. Obviously didn't go down well with the electorate.
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Natilo's Ongoing Cultural Comparisons Series
So, I was wondering the other day, as it is now BBQ season: What are barbecues like across the pond? There's that scene in The Legend of Rita where the Stasi guy has invited all the RAF refugees to his dacha for some beer and sausages, and it seems not all that different from a USian barbecue, but I have no idea how accurate that depiction is. What are the usual foods cooked? Other traditions? Do most people use charcoal or gas? Does everyone have one friend who always uses way too much lighter fluid and singes their eyebrows off once a summer?
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And I think that it's pretty clear by now, especially to Clegg, that if people want a Conservative government, they'll vote for one.
With the exception of Scotland, looks like we are back to two-party politics now.
Pretty, I dunno, disheartening? Chickens coming home to roost? Our Repub-majority House here in MN keeps talking about ridiculous rollbacks of every single thing that DFLers have done in the last 20 years. Thank God, I'm still an atheist we have a fairly liberal Governor. Depressing.
133: On a panel show I watched a while back, an Aussie recounted how when in the UK, he had noticed one day the weather was gorgeous, suggested a barbecue, and all the people he was with looked at him like he was crazy: "It'll only last half an hour!"
133 Saarland is a lot like Minnesota: Brats on the grill, potato salad, beer.
It is interesting that I can remember Major winning a majority of 17 for the Conservatives and everyone was like "ooh, not great", and now Cameron is set to not get a majority, again, and everyone is like "historic win!"
And don't forget that awkward period of the Independent Republic of Minnesota in the '50s.
Wait, what? Is that like a multi-level pun? I am confused.
Further confirming 73, the 538 liveblog is saying there is a swing to Labour in precisely the places they don't need it - Yorkshire, the North West, and London.
140: Crappy polls letting the result get painted as a dramatic turnaround, maybe?
In more pleasant election news, the serious liberal candidate for mayor of Anchorage beat the nutty right-winger in a landslide.
So, who is the "Mr. Block" of the UK electorate? I'm picturing him as a moderately prosperous white guy in his early 50s, not particularly religious, no outside ethnic affiliations, doesn't hate gays, but is made mildly uncomfortable by them, thinks everyone is as corrupt as he is. But maybe I'm totally off.
142: nah, nothing so deep. Saarland was independent (well, an awkward protectorate, but) in the 50s due to fallout from the war. While, I suppose, Japan was dependent in the 50s due to fallout from the war. There, that's a bad pun for you.
Nate Silver may have got the result totally wrong (like everyone else) but this is funny:
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/596466029280256000/photo/1
OT, and maybe it's partly due to gin on my night off, but I initially read the front page TPM headline "Even Pete King turns on Pam Geller" as calling out Geller for being a total whore.
147: Character created by Joe Hill to satirize the average anti-union American.
To clarify: Who are the low-information voters? Why do they choose what they do?
Can't help but be glad that Danny Alexander's out. Have been dozing in front of the tv all night, and now waiting impatiently for my constituency to declare. Just can't believe that the Conservatives are likely to end up with more seats - thought it would become closer, not further apart. Surely more ammunition for electoral reform?
Oh, sorry, the cartoon was first, then Hill wrote the song.
Well maybe now we'll avoid the half baked threats to leave the country from the American liberals if a Republican wins in 2016. HA, and leave to WHERE, assholes?!
I love the English landscape and the churches, but I take your point. I'm not super fond of the bits of Canada I know (Ottawa, the Toronto exurbs and the semi-rural bits of Ontario that are like upstate NY); I would probably like the Maritiimes, but the NDP did beat out the Conservatives in Alberta. (Okay the vote was split by an even more horrible conservative party.)
Actually Gall/oway's defeat is fucking wonderful news. He was an unbelievably awful MP, a thug who fomented anti-semitism in the most disgusting way.
As for the rest, I think it is a total trashing of everything that Islington/theGruandia believes in or cares about. Miliband would have been a pretty useless Prime Minister, but what comes now will be worse. How Cameron proposes to win the referendum I can't imagine.
Mp sympathies to the Knifecrime Island contingent of the Unfoggedtariat. That really really sucks.
156 was me. I'm banning myself now.
Well, Galloway's gone, Clegg is gone (as leader at least), Farage is gone... there are at least a few bright spots.
Uninformed Yank here, but the reason a whole lot of Republicans were genuinely surprised by our 2012 election is because they forget that we vote by states.
I meant to say something to this yesterday, but got distracted. I don't think that was the issue in 2012, at least not for the presidential election or the Senate. Just recalling the wonderful fucknuttery of why they thought Romney would win still brings joy to my heart. They refused to believe that anybody shifted party IDs (on the net, that is) or that the young people who said they would vote would actually vote. They either adjusted their "likely voter" screens or just flat out weighted the sample by party identification until they got numbers that matched who they thought would show up to vote. Until I saw the footage of Rove as Ohio results came in, I had assumed they didn't actual believe those polls, but were just putting them out there to bolster he faithful.
So, I was wondering the other day, as it is now BBQ season: What are barbecues like across the pond? There's that scene in The Legend of Rita where the Stasi guy has invited all the RAF refugees to his dacha for some beer and sausages, and it seems not all that different from a USian barbecue, but I have no idea how accurate that depiction is. What are the usual foods cooked? Other traditions? Do most people use charcoal or gas? Does everyone have one friend who always uses way too much lighter fluid and singes their eyebrows off once a summer?
Because it's less depressing than the election. I'm not hugely familiar with US barbecues other than in popular culture, but my impression is you're much less likely to have actual barbecue (ie smoked and/or slow cooked meat), and much more likely to have one or more of burgers, sausages, chicken drumsticks, and maybe lamb/pork chops. At least in towns, people are much less likely to have a gas grill and more likely to have fire pit, disposable barbecue or Weber grill style charcoal thing. I don't think I've ever seen a fancy gas grill in this country, but I imagine some posh people in the countryside have them.
But mainly it's just an excuse to sit around in the garden and drink.
I had a Weber, but I gave it away when I moved here. I replaced it with a cheap propane grill because I got tired of waiting around a half an hour before I could even start to cook of the lower carbon footprint. Fancy propane grills (which I think is what you mean by "gas") are common also, but the basic ones don't cost much more than a Weber grill.
Yeah, my barbecue experience has almost always been charcoal. And it tends to be sausages, burgers, pork chops, chicken thighs or drumsticks, etc. Using rubs and marinades is less common, and brining meat would be largely unheard of.
Funnily enough, I went to a barbecue joint this week, in DC. The chicken made me nervous, as by UK standards, it was basically raw.
Hopefully, it was just more moist because of brining.
My brother-in-law has a Weber and he does a whole bunch of stuff with indirect heat and careful placing of the charcoal. When he does the brats, they are better than when I do them myself. But still, so much more effort.
Too bad about the UK.
Charcoal over propane, definitely. But hardwood, not briquettes, and no fluid, chimney instead. Takes 6 min to come to temp.
Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey
Chim chim cher-ee!
Fluid tastes bad in your bar-ar-ar-bie.
162.last: American standards for cooking chicken leave me queasy. I mostly avoid it for this reason.
I always check for 170 degrees regular. Unless I'm in a hurry or something.
There is a real barbecue place in my town which one friend from South Carolina described as " owned by two boys from North Carolina." It's good. Pulled pork, burnt ends and Texas brisket. Mustard and vinegar sausage.
They do grilled stuff too, though. Mostly Jamaican jerk chicken.
A great thing about barbecue is the number of potential cock jokes you can make with the terminology.
So, Knifecrimers, what exactly did Labour do to shit the bed? Krugman has been having an aneurism over the quality of economics discussion in the British press, so is it just a function of Cameron managing to blame Labour for the downturn, get credit for the recovery, and assert that austerity was the only sane response? Is Milliband's sandwich-eating that disgusting? What's up?
is it just a function of Cameron managing to blame Labour for the downturn, get credit for the recovery, and assert that austerity was the only sane response
This is probably a large part of it, combined with the fact that the current decent employment market (at least in terms of jobs, if not wages) has made people forget quite how bad the recovery was compared to other recessions. Also Milliband is a really, really bad campaigner, and the mostly right-wing tabloid press went all-in against Labour.
I'm not convinced economics coverage in the UK press is worse than in the US, though I'm not saying it's good. Budget coverage seems to be a lot better here. I'm willing to believe the coverage of economics during an election is particularly bad though - our press at election time is entirely ridiculous narrative driven spin (yeah, yeah, open goal).
I was not expecting a clear majority. Wow. That really sucks.
I blame Tony Blair.
Condolences to my Knifecrime cousins.
172: Big historic event in Scotland. Savage media campaign. Some degree of deeply denied antisemitism. Unexpected tendency of ex-LibDems to move right. Something bizarre in the West Midlands that I don't think anyone has come close to explaining. (I mean, the map looks like a pure urban-rural split *except there*.)
I actually had the impression that the Convervatives were riding a wave of anti-Scotland sentiment in Engliand (hence Labour's distancing themselves a coalition with the SNP).
I think I said this here before, but somebody in the Tories is an evil genius. They used the global financial crisis as cover to deliberately crash the British economy, and then let it recover in time to get credit for it at the election.
178.2: Surely they got more benefit from happening to be far from power when the crash happened, which they didn't plan.
177: How is it that Scottish Independence referendum failed, but the SNP took 56 out of 59 seats in Scotland?
180: You can split your ticket. Also, in the parliamentary election they benefit from the way first-past-the-post works - any plurality would be enough in each seat, while the referendum required 50% plus 1.
181: So who was spoiling whom to create a result where the SNP won a plurality in all of those constituencies?
182: It's not really a spoiler effect since the three parties splitting most of the non-SNP vote in Scotland (Labour, Tories, Lib Dems) all campaigned against independence, but are fairly different otherwise (though not different enough).
In the overall Scotland vote share, SNP went up 30% from last election, Labour down 18%, Lib Dems down 11%, Tories down 2%. Since SNP got more of the vote share than Yes on independence got, probably pretty much everyone who voted Yes decided the SNP also better represented them in general, and so probably did some people who voted No.
Do I understand right that Labour actually has more English seats than they did before? So the main changes in England are that the Lib Dems decreased a ton which gave the Tories room to grow a bunch even though Labour also grew?
Yeah, Tories got most of Lib Dem seats in England, but Labour got a fair number too, and actually I think wrested a few seats from Tories in England; not nearly enough to make up for losses in Scotland though.
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Touching overheard teenagers:
"Why not? Let's see what happens!"
"I'm not going to burn my calculator!"
"You'd see some sparks!"
|>
Why are you touching teenagers, Minivet?
They're not considerate enough to do it to themselves.
|| Today strike two major items off the must do list that have been weighing on me for some time.
1. Donating my large Arabic language library to an evil real estate magnate major research university. Loaded up a Uhaul with, I dunno, 700-900 books in many very heavy bins and schlepped them in to the city. I was pulled over by two of New York's finest at the entrance to the Midtown tunnel as they wanted a look inside the van. I had no idea that was going to happen. Cop even said "you seem surprised." And when I asked what's up and why they were doing this I got the old "little thing called 9/11" in a nice thick Queens accent. "Books" I told him, when he asked what he'd find inside "Arabic books I'm donating to evil real estate magnate major research university." He just glanced inside and told me I can go. And to be forewarned that I'd be pulled over for the same routine on the way back. Apparently all rental vans and trucks are flagged like that.
On arrival at the library of the evil real estate magnate major research university, I unloaded the van and schmoozed with the Middle East studies librarian for awhile and then went back, dropped off the Uhaul and
2. Sold my car. For cash. Weeeee!!!
Gonna be packing like crazy this weekend and deciding what to take and what to ship. It's already around 90 F "at night in Arrakis. In May. I wonder what July is going to be like. And August. One thing I do know. This native New Yorker owns far too many black shirts.
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Something bizarre in the West Midlands
I was wondering about this--it looked entirely not red enough, especially compared to The North but also to London. And I don't recall ever thinking Birmingham had an usually conservative stereotype.
I know which general region Arrakis is in, but do we know which one it is? Does it have, for example, funny-shaped islands, or two mosques (sorry, Two Mosques), or a capital that sounds like a Muppets song?
It's the country where the regional news network is based, if that conveys it.
I thought he was moving to California.
I'm really curious about the Muppets song. (Sally was recently shocked to find a non-muppet version of Windmills Of Your Mind. That's one where the muppet version should be canonical.)
It's not easy being Greenville?
195 With an aching in his heart?
Seems that the wrath of the Gods got a punch in the nose.
It was dry and he couldn't bring books.
If I'm guessing right, you should really say the capital's name twice to get the Muppets song.
That would be a very poor choice, indeed.
You're guessing right for the Muppets song but apparently wrong for the identity of Arrakis, which is not Bahrain (cap. Manama).
203: Hah, I was actually thinking "Amman Amman".
Now I finally understand the "Menominee" joke some friends of mine used to make when driving through Wisconsin.
I wonder how many other things I'm missing out on due not really liking Sesame Street when I was a kid.
not really liking Sesame Street when I was a kid
BURN THE HERETIC.
191 If by funny shaped islands you mean the archipelago, no, that's not it. And given the political and especially the human rights situation there as desperate as I was about employment I don't think I'd be able to take a job there and live with myself.
Nor is it the land of the Two Mosques. Someone previously suggested the pseudogeonym Mordor but where I'm going is adjacent to Mordor. (I guess that makes the Two Mosques Minas Morgul and Barad-dûr. If a certain monarchy and the extremist ideology it propagates were to loosen its grip on the land one hopes Minas Morgul would revert to Minas Ithil.)
207: Like the word "to", for instance.
The original 1969 Sesame Street version of "Mahna Mahna" ought to be canonical. The Mahna Mahna guy in that one looks exactly like a certain anarcho-primitivist of my acquaintance.
Also, did everyone else know that Disney is essentially the government of the area around Disney World?
Assuming you mean "North America", yes.