h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is the atelier. An atelier, at any rate. Although there's plenty of character playing and a healthy dose of silliness, we like to think of ourselves as a place you can come to discuss substantive things and share opinions.

Newcomers, read the Atelier page and follow the offsite atelier link to get a feel for where you've arrives, and to meet many of the characters who come here regularly.

And then tell Matina what you'd like by way of refreshments and join us.

There are several other threads alive in this forum. A number of us have been sojourning in the linen closet, but due to claustrophobia, opportunity and cowardice, most of us jumped at the chance to bail out to the Cafe. That left Afgncaap5, Garius Lupus, Carmel Bunny, Styx the Rat and Titania the Elf fixing to battle with the Heart of Darkness. There's been no activity in that thread for several days now, so I suspect the players are regrouping somewhere under CLI (which in turn is under the atelier).

A birthday banquet continues, in honour of your hostess and one of her landlords. Guests have come as a favourite character from Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Newcomers are welcome, although I think the repast is winding down toward dessert, which the butler has yet to announce.

Now read on.

*saunters in*

whats the business with the profiles on the main page? and can i get one?

*Matina brings Uncle Heavy and first-to-the-forum Irish Coffee*

Yes, you can, if you want. The pre-requisite is, you have to supply your own thumbnail bio.

Man, my fireplace ~works~! No thermostat on an open flame heating system, of course, so by the end of the evening I was wearing a t-shirt instead of a sweater. One of the logs was kind of poppy though, and I notice specks of soot scattered around flat surfaces this morning. I need to dust, sometime. *hopes Garius didn't hear that*

my room has no cenral heating. it is colder inside than outside.

Oh! New forum, no backlog!

My stoves are working OK. I have had fire in 3 of them today and my house is quite warm in spite of all the atorm outdoors. There's a snow storm and +2C outdoors, .

*Politely refrains from commenting on dust, but can't resist one quiet tsk.*

So, Americans, can you please explain how the electoral college works. In a nutshell? I have a rough idea, but am still confused.

Here in Canada, we vote for our local candidate for the party of our choice. Each riding is first-past-the-post decision, then the party that won the most ridings forms the government, and their leader becomes the Prime Minister (head of state). The problem is that if lots of the races are close, the final results can be skewed. For example, party A could squeek past in lots of ridings and form the government with lots of seats in parliament, while party B comes close, but wins very few ridings and hence has very few seats in the parliament, although when you look at the votes cast, party A may have received 40% of the votes and party B 35% of the votes. In other words, the strength of the party in parliament doesn't reflect their percentage of the vote.

[BB]

Dropping in

"Too busy playing with some different newsreaders to get on with the housework"

The electoral college works thus:
Each state has a certain number of electoral votes, adjusted by population. In the presidential election, you vote for the democratic or republican (or third party, ha!) candidate and, in every state but two, whichever party gets the most votes gets all the electors. Even if it's only a margin of one or two, or five hundred like in, say, florida. The electors are actually people, chosen by the party, but they always choose longtime party faithful. The total number of electoral votes is around 540, meaning you need 271 to win. In a state like Utah where there is no chance of a democratic majority, Marv's democratic vote is thus rendered useless.

And then the guys in the electoral college vote for the president?

So, what was the original purpose of the electoral college? Why not vote directly for the president?

Are Senators and Congressmen voted for directly?

Of course it works against the Republicans, too. The Florida election travesty got a lot of press but it isn't something new. Illinios typically throws out a lot of votes over illegibility, rules violations, etc. A disproportunate number of these votes are Republican. The Democratic machine in Illinois has probably cost at least one Republican the presidency (but we don't like to talk about that because it was the 1960 Kennedy vs. Nixon election).

I don't know why we don't vote directly for out president - inertia probably. Our founding fathers had to deal with an even more ignorant and less informed populace than we have today, so the electoral college was seen as a better idea than a direct vote. No one like it today, but we still have it.

We have always voted directly for our Representative, but originally Senators we chosen by State Assemblies. That was changed about a hundred years ago.

Of course it works against both democrats and republicans, most notably in this past election and the aforementioned 1960 illinois case. Kennedy and the mayor of chicago were buddies.

The real loser, though, are third parties.

The electoral college was originally more skewed than it is now - in the mid 1800s, I forget which election exactly, once candidate led by a huge popular majority, but someone on the opposition had been given seventy electoral votes and voted in favor of the other. Benjamin Harrison maybe? Anyway the original purpose was to keep the masses away from making decisions. Kind of like the purpose today.

I dislike sundays so

This week's art assignment is to render a portrait using a photograph, preferably full-face. Is anyone else familiar with that Ozkok (umlaut on 2nd O)photo-portait of Samuel Beckett that makes him look like an ancient raptor? That's the one I'm working with. Such piercing intelligence in those old eyes! I feel as if he knows what I'm thinking.

IRL I got drawing pencils for my birthday.

One comment. Marv is a real independant, and did not vote for gore or bush in the last election. But still my vote counted not.

Congrats, Lil.

But I'm sorry, I must profess my ignorance, Lil. I've never seen this picture. Makes him look like a raptor?

*Imagines*

You know, it's been a while since I went on a Space Odyssey, with video messages sent back to the Atelier. Those were fun. Maybe I should go on another one of those sometime soon.

Oh, I almost forgot.

*Hits the sign. It changes to read "125 down, 55 to go"*

Mac
From what I remember from college (in the UK) the historic reason for the electoral college was due to the size of the country.

Most voters would never have seen or heard the candidates so they elected representatives to travel to Washington and vote on their behalf.

Whilst that was true in the days when the fastest transport was the horse, it's plainly not so now but I suspect that like a lot of things in the UK it's "too difficult to change" according to those in power

I still don't see the original reason for the electoral college. Since it is well know which way they will vote, you still are voting for the president of your choice, but doing it indirectly. It only makes sense if originally the guys that get voted into the college were more-or-less independant and could vote how they thought best. That way, you would be taking the decision away from the uninformed and giving it to (presumably) the informed.

Nice one Affy

So loads of backlog, a conversation on electoral types, a new conversation and that's just in a weekend!
Still got the stuff done I had to do and stayed dry and warm when in the water (Water temp was a balmy 12C). Now I'm back home having hung up loads of things to dry and air and I think I want to go to bed as I'm now very tired.

See you all later