Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
In the first week of the campaign, I thought it was just me. Maybe I’d seen a few federal elections and knew the pattern. But no, now I’m sure. This really is the most boring election in the history of western civilisation. Which is why I’ve written far less about it than I thought I would. It’s depressing.
I blame John Howard.
This video explains it all. Thanks to Marc Andreessen for the pointer.
Here’s a nice antidote to the Coalition TV advert trying to scare us about [gasp!] the Labor party having links to trade unions.
Interestingly, it’s another election-related video that doesn’t have “real” names and addresses at the end saying where it came from. I wonder whether the Australian Electoral Commission will be attempting to prosecute any of these folks for this apparent breach.
I’m a sucker for maps. I’m especially a sucker for satirical maps of our psychopolitical geography. So I reckon this Tory Map of the World from 1982 is pretty special.
I particularly like the entire Indian sub-continent labelled as “Pakis” and the mis-identification of Singapore.
Bonus link: A map of The World according to Ronald Reagan, with Africa divided into “Egypt” and “Negroes”.
Thanks to Strange Maps for the pointer.
Gotta love the Internet. If you take the analysis of today’s Newspoll figures and plug them into Antony Green’s election calculator you get this astounding result.
An ALP win, with 102 seats in the House versus just 46 for the Coalition. Antony’s sliders didn’t even allow for a swing of more than 10% but the details are correct if you click through.
As Antony said on The 7.30 Report last night, “The biggest swing Labor have achieved and won Government was the Hawke-led Labor Party in ’83 a bit over 3 per cent. At the moment we’re talking about swings of double of almost triple that kind of swing.”
“I have collected 83 links to blogs about photography, art, multimedia and journalism, that I hope might be a source of good information for you,” says Martin Fuchs of Magnum Photos. There goes the weekend.